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Will The Washington Post exist in five years? A veteran insider weighs in.

Poynter · Tom Jones · last updated

Former Post media reporter Paul Farhi joined ‘The Poynter Report Podcast’ to explain how the newsroom reached this moment and what may come next

It’s still hard to believe what happened at The Washington Post.

In just one day earlier this month, owner Jeff Bezos and then-publisher and CEO Will Lewis took a sledgehammer to one of the most respected and legendary news outlets in history by laying off more than 300 journalists, accounting for, according to some reports, more than 40% of the staff.

The sports and foreign desk were essentially gutted. So was the book department, photo desk and much of the metro department.

What’s especially baffling is that no one could have seen this coming when Bezos bought the Post back in 2013. He seemed like the perfect owner: a billionaire who was willing to pour money into the product and then get out of the way while journalists did their job.

What happened? And what will happen next?

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