#mattmurray — Public Fediverse posts

https://www.lovenhl.com/1577645/ 2026.27 Schedule Release | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1577645/ 2026.27 Schedule Release | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1577398/ Ben Kindel’s 2025.26 Season Highlights | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1577398/ Ben Kindel’s 2025.26 Season Highlights | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1575424/ Egor Chinakhov’s 2025.26 Season Highlights | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1575424/ Egor Chinakhov’s 2025.26 Season Highlights | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1574428/ Bryan Rust’s 2025.26 Season Highlights | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1571272/ Crosby Calls the Ruck Twins After Draft #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1571170/ NHL Draft Media Availability: Markus Ruck #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1570970/ NHL Draft Media Availability: Liam Ruck #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1570510/ A Message From Geoff Hoffmann, Incoming Governor of the Pittsburgh Penguins. #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

Justice Department withdrew subpoenas seeking reporters’ grand jury testimony

WASHINGT…
#NewsBeep #News #Headlines #Business #Caribbean #CaribbeanSea #Crime #DonaldTrump #EllenNakashima #Entertainment #FreedomofthePress #Generalnews #HannahNatanson #Iran #iranwar #JoeBiden #Juries #MarkSchoeffJr. #MattMurray #Media #PamBondi #Politics #Subpoenas #ToddBlanche #U.S.DepartmentofJustice #U.S.FederalBureauofInvestigation #UnitedStatesgovernment #Washingtonnews #World
https://www.newsbeep.com/607519/

https://www.europesays.com/news/44334/ Justice Department withdrew subpoenas seeking reporters’ grand jury testimony #Business #Caribbean #CaribbeanSea #Crime #EllenNakashima #Entertainment #FreedomOfThePress #GeneralNews #Headlines #Iran #IranWar #JoeBiden #Juries #MarkSchoeffJr #MattMurray #Media #News #PamBondi #Politics #Subpoenas #ToddBlanche #TopStories #USDepartmentOfJustice #USFederalBureauOfInvestigation #UnitedStatesGovernment #WashingtonNews

https://www.lovenhl.com/1569303/ Evgeni Malkin’s 2025.26 Season Highlights | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1567742/ Sidney Crosby’s 2025.26 Season Highlights | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1567576/ Nick Bonino Plays Goalie During Practice | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #NickBonino #PacificDivision #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SanJoseSharks #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry #WesternConference

https://www.lovenhl.com/1566962/ Mic’d Up Moment: Avery Hayes’ NHL Debut 🙌 #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1566466/ Looking Back at the 2016 Stanley Cup Victory #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1565853/ Erik Karlsson’s 2025.26 Season Highlights | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1562252/ Mic’d Up Moment: Nick Bonino Trolls Parker Wotherspoon 😂 #nhl #hockey #penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1561323/ “I stay one more year!” 🔥 #nhl #penguins #hockey #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1559294/ Mic’d Up Moment: Marc-Andre Fleury at Practice #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #nhl #Pens #Pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1554481/ End of Season Media Availability (Part 2) | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #NHL #pens #pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1552848/ Crosby, Karlsson, Mantha, Muse Media Availability (4.29.26) | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #NHL #pens #pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1552122/ Crosby, Rust, Rakell, Muse Media Availability (4.27.26) | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #NHL #pens #pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RickardRakell #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1550163/ Skinner, Rakell, Soderblom, Muse Media Availability (4.17.26) | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #NHL #pens #pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1549576/ Our Muse 🙌 #nhl #hockey #penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #NHL #pens #pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1548413/ The Big Three and Alex Ovechkin Take Center Ice 📸 #NHL #penguins #hockey #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #NHL #pens #pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1547896/ Shirts Off Our Backs 2026 | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #NHL #pens #pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1546978/ Dan Muse Delivers Postgame Speech After Penguins Clinch Playoffs #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #NHL #pens #pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1546801/ Flip The Script | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #NHL #pens #pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1545211/ Murashov, Skinner, Muse Media Availability (4.7.26) | Pittsburgh Penguins #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #NHL #pens #pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1545125/ Can’t get anything past Kindy 😂 #nhl #penguins #hockey #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #NHL #pens #pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1544190/ Lots of shout outs tonight 👏 #nhl #penguins #hockey #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #NHL #pens #pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

https://www.lovenhl.com/1543702/ Crosby Shares Moment with Malkin’s Son Postgame #AlexLetang #BrianDumoulin #BryanRust #BryanTrottier #DominikKahun #EasternConference #EvgeniMalkin #hockey #IceHockey #JakeGuentzel #JaromirJagr #JohnMarino #KrisLetang #MarcusPettersson #MarioLemieux #MattMurray #MetropolitanDivision #NationalHockeyLeague #NHL #pens #pittsburgh #PittsburghPenguins #RonFrancis #SidneyCrosby #StanleyCup #TristanJarry

Semafor Keeps Hosting Ridiculous “Restoring Trust In Media” Events That Only Further Undermine Trust In Media

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/02/semafor-keeps-hosting-ridiculous-restoring-trust-in-media-events-that-only-further-undermine-trust-in-media/

Semafor Keeps Hosting Ridiculous “Restoring Trust In Media” Events That Only Further Undermine Trust In Media

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/02/semafor-keeps-hosting-ridiculous-restoring-trust-in-media-events-that-only-further-undermine-trust-in-media/

Semafor Keeps Hosting Ridiculous “Restoring Trust In Media” Events That Only Further Undermine Trust In Media

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/02/semafor-keeps-hosting-ridiculous-restoring-trust-in-media-events-that-only-further-undermine-trust-in-media/

Semafor Keeps Hosting Ridiculous “Restoring Trust In Media” Events That Only Further Undermine Trust In Media

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/02/semafor-keeps-hosting-ridiculous-restoring-trust-in-media-events-that-only-further-undermine-trust-in-media/

Semafor Keeps Hosting Ridiculous “Restoring Trust In Media” Events That Only Further Undermine Trust In Media

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/02/semafor-keeps-hosting-ridiculous-restoring-trust-in-media-events-that-only-further-undermine-trust-in-media/

Netflix Orders ‘Dang!’ Adult Animated Series Starring Stephanie Hsu, Poppy Liu & Andrew Law From ‘The Good Place’ Trio
#News #AndrewLaw #Dang #MattMurray #MikeSchur #Netflix #PoppyLiu #StephanieHsu

https://deadline.com/2026/02/netflix-dang-adult-animated-series-mike-schur-andrew-law-1236728986/

Netflix Orders ‘Dang!’ Adult Animated Series Starring Stephanie Hsu, Poppy Liu & Andrew Law From ‘The Good Place’ Trio
#News #AndrewLaw #Dang #MattMurray #MikeSchur #Netflix #PoppyLiu #StephanieHsu

https://deadline.com/2026/02/netflix-dang-adult-animated-series-mike-schur-andrew-law-1236728986/

The Washington Post is gutting its books coverage – Literary Hub

The Washington Post is gutting its books coverage.

By Brittany Allen, February 4, 2026

Earlier today, Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post laid off hundreds of its employees, in what one staffer called “an absolute bloodbath.”

As The Guardian reported this morning, editor-in-chief Matt Murray told his masthead that the paper was due for a “strategic reset.” Citing flagging subscriptions and grim growth, Murray announced that the Post would be laying off a third of its workforce, and sundowning several popular sections—including the sports desk, the daily news podcast, most of the “international reporting operation,” some local coverage, and the books desk.

Going forward, the paper will pivot to prioritizing news concerning “national security,” and topics like science, health, medicine, technology, climate and business.

The Post’s book coverage—chiefly via the beloved Book World section—has long been a gold standard in the industry. Critics like John Williams, Becca Rothfeld, Jacob Brogan, Michael Dirda, and Ron Charles have shaped the literary landscape. For decades, in some cases.

Book World originated in the aftermath of Watergate. In a fond 2022 reflection, editor Dirda described the section’s early days, during which he nurtured and commissioned many literary greats—like the polymath Guy Davenport, the novelist Angela Carter, and David Remnick, who’d go on to edit The New Yorker.

It’s critical voices like these who will be first affected by the section’s sunsetting. But authors and publishers should also worry about what the end of Book World means for national press.

At least Charles, who learned of his firing while eating “eating one of the two remaining Harry & David pears that the Post sent to celebrate [his] 20th anniversary at the paper,” is determined not to go gentle. He is starting a Substack.

In his first missive to readers, the unleashed critic quipped: “Honestly, the worst aspect of this impoverishing, family-wrecking, confidence-crushing ordeal is that it will inspire David Brooks to write an essay about the hubris of American media.”

Meanwhile, the paper’s long term strategy remains unclear. As the Times reported, the Post is “far from alone” in the battle to stay relevant in a downward-trending media ecosystem whose traffic is increasingly threatened by AI summaries. But it is possibly the only outlet where the bottom line is meaningless, given the owner is richer than Satan.

Bezos, whose personal wealth is estimated at $261 billion, could not be reached for comment about any of the cuts his team architected.

Post employees who have been laid off will continue to be on staff through mid-April, though “they will not be required to work.” Health insurance coverage will continue for six months.

A union-led protest to denounce the cuts is scheduled for tomorrow.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Literary Hub » The Washington Post is gutting its books coverage.

The Washington Post is gutting its books coverage – Literary Hub

The Washington Post is gutting its books coverage.

By Brittany Allen, February 4, 2026

Earlier today, Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post laid off hundreds of its employees, in what one staffer called “an absolute bloodbath.”

As The Guardian reported this morning, editor-in-chief Matt Murray told his masthead that the paper was due for a “strategic reset.” Citing flagging subscriptions and grim growth, Murray announced that the Post would be laying off a third of its workforce, and sundowning several popular sections—including the sports desk, the daily news podcast, most of the “international reporting operation,” some local coverage, and the books desk.

Going forward, the paper will pivot to prioritizing news concerning “national security,” and topics like science, health, medicine, technology, climate and business.

The Post’s book coverage—chiefly via the beloved Book World section—has long been a gold standard in the industry. Critics like John Williams, Becca Rothfeld, Jacob Brogan, Michael Dirda, and Ron Charles have shaped the literary landscape. For decades, in some cases.

Book World originated in the aftermath of Watergate. In a fond 2022 reflection, editor Dirda described the section’s early days, during which he nurtured and commissioned many literary greats—like the polymath Guy Davenport, the novelist Angela Carter, and David Remnick, who’d go on to edit The New Yorker.

It’s critical voices like these who will be first affected by the section’s sunsetting. But authors and publishers should also worry about what the end of Book World means for national press.

At least Charles, who learned of his firing while eating “eating one of the two remaining Harry & David pears that the Post sent to celebrate [his] 20th anniversary at the paper,” is determined not to go gentle. He is starting a Substack.

In his first missive to readers, the unleashed critic quipped: “Honestly, the worst aspect of this impoverishing, family-wrecking, confidence-crushing ordeal is that it will inspire David Brooks to write an essay about the hubris of American media.”

Meanwhile, the paper’s long term strategy remains unclear. As the Times reported, the Post is “far from alone” in the battle to stay relevant in a downward-trending media ecosystem whose traffic is increasingly threatened by AI summaries. But it is possibly the only outlet where the bottom line is meaningless, given the owner is richer than Satan.

Bezos, whose personal wealth is estimated at $261 billion, could not be reached for comment about any of the cuts his team architected.

Post employees who have been laid off will continue to be on staff through mid-April, though “they will not be required to work.” Health insurance coverage will continue for six months.

A union-led protest to denounce the cuts is scheduled for tomorrow.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Literary Hub » The Washington Post is gutting its books coverage.

The real reason why Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post. – Slate

The Media

Jeff Bezos Killed the Washington Post

The billionaire wanted the Post to die, because a vigorous, well-resourced newspaper does not help his bottom line.

By Alex Kirshner, Feb 05, 202611:07 AM

Copy Link Share Comment

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.

Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post on Wednesday. The paper survives as a husk, but the institution that became one of the cathedrals of world journalism is gone. The biggest mistake one could make in analyzing this corporate slaughter is to lay the blame solely on the state of journalism. That’d be wrong.

Times are hard in journalism, just like they always are. The big new problem is A.I. swallowing up search traffic, which itself had already sucked up the ad revenue that used to go to newspapers and magazines. Otherwise, all of the things that have been hard for the past 20 years are still hard now. Powerful corporate interests have captured great newsrooms, or run their own old family businesses into the ground. Fox News, social media, and podcasts—in that chronological order—have cocooned a lot of people to want only “news” that isn’t really news. Megyn Kelly is now a red-meat podcaster instead of an occasionally punchy Fox host.

The Post laid off 300 journalists on Wednesday. This included more or less the entire remaining staff of the paper’s legendary sports section, which produced several of the best writers to ever do the job. The days of the superstar columnist with the biggest megaphone in town were long gone, but the section remained tremendous. The paper slashed its international coverage, laying off a journalist who found out as she reported from Kyiv. Many editors across desks lost their jobs. Worst of all, not that it’s a contest, but the Washington Post will now be a lot less Washingtonian. The paper has fired at least a substantial chunk of its metro reporters, who serviced a city and region that have been under a multifront attack from the Trump administration.

In a stiff email, Post executive editor Matt Murray tried to make this move sound like yet another example of a tough business forcing tough decisions. “The ecosystem of news and information, on- and off-platform, is changing radically,” Murray wrote to his staffers, fired and not. He lamented the “serious decline” of search traffic. He wrote of increased competition from other people, other platforms.

He did not write about one specific person: Bezos, who bought the paper from the Graham family in 2013 for $250 million. (Note: Slate is owned by Graham Holdings, the company controlled by the Graham family.)

That is because Murray values his paycheck and didn’t want to point out the Post’s real cause of death—namely, that one of the richest people in human history staged a controlled burn to turn it into ash. Bezos wanted the Post to die, because a vigorous, well-resourced Washington Post does not suit his vision for the world or his own bottom line. The end of the Post is a matter not of journalistic economics but of Bezos’ incentives.

Whatever the Post is worth today is immaterial to Bezos’ wealth. It’s barely even what you’d call a rounding error. Bezos could sustain the Post’s operating losses for hundreds of lifetimes without even threatening his current wealth, let alone the additional wealth he and his heirs will amass passively in years to come from his stakes in Amazon, Blue Origin, and who knows what else.

A man worth more than $240 billion does not care even a little bit, in pure dollar terms, about a $100 million annual loss running a prestige business. When Bezos bought the paper, he made clear to the Post’s prior management that he viewed the paper not purely through a profit lens, the New York Times reported. Bezos wrote to Post employees, “The paper’s duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners.” That turned out to be, at best, incredibly misleading.

The Post itself doesn’t affect Bezos’ vast fortune much, but what it represents does. One of the employees he laid off on Wednesday was the paper’s Amazon reporter, Caroline O’Donovan. More critically, even under Bezos’ ownership, the Post frequently published stories that upset the Trump administration, whose vindictive approach to regulation could pose obvious problems for Amazon and Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin.

Related From Slate

Mary ZieglerHow Trump Used a Law Meant to Protect Abortion Seekers to Arrest Members of the Press Read More

Bezos understood this risk more than a year ago, when he drove away 250,000 paying subscribers by stepping in to prevent the paper from endorsing Kamala Harris. Bezos then transformed the Post’s opinion section, away from a broad-based page and into a propaganda arm devoted to promoting “personal liberties and free markets.”

The paper’s executives and owner punted away from aggressively covering Trump’s second term, bleeding both subscribers and a general share of viral stories that instead went to competitors like the Times and Wall Street Journal. There was money to be made by investing in the paper’s reporting staff, who never stopped doing their best to provide honest (and necessarily adversarial) coverage of Trump. Bezos just didn’t want that money.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: The real reason why Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post.

The real reason why Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post. – Slate

The Media

Jeff Bezos Killed the Washington Post

The billionaire wanted the Post to die, because a vigorous, well-resourced newspaper does not help his bottom line.

By Alex Kirshner, Feb 05, 202611:07 AM

Copy Link Share Comment

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.

Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post on Wednesday. The paper survives as a husk, but the institution that became one of the cathedrals of world journalism is gone. The biggest mistake one could make in analyzing this corporate slaughter is to lay the blame solely on the state of journalism. That’d be wrong.

Times are hard in journalism, just like they always are. The big new problem is A.I. swallowing up search traffic, which itself had already sucked up the ad revenue that used to go to newspapers and magazines. Otherwise, all of the things that have been hard for the past 20 years are still hard now. Powerful corporate interests have captured great newsrooms, or run their own old family businesses into the ground. Fox News, social media, and podcasts—in that chronological order—have cocooned a lot of people to want only “news” that isn’t really news. Megyn Kelly is now a red-meat podcaster instead of an occasionally punchy Fox host.

The Post laid off 300 journalists on Wednesday. This included more or less the entire remaining staff of the paper’s legendary sports section, which produced several of the best writers to ever do the job. The days of the superstar columnist with the biggest megaphone in town were long gone, but the section remained tremendous. The paper slashed its international coverage, laying off a journalist who found out as she reported from Kyiv. Many editors across desks lost their jobs. Worst of all, not that it’s a contest, but the Washington Post will now be a lot less Washingtonian. The paper has fired at least a substantial chunk of its metro reporters, who serviced a city and region that have been under a multifront attack from the Trump administration.

In a stiff email, Post executive editor Matt Murray tried to make this move sound like yet another example of a tough business forcing tough decisions. “The ecosystem of news and information, on- and off-platform, is changing radically,” Murray wrote to his staffers, fired and not. He lamented the “serious decline” of search traffic. He wrote of increased competition from other people, other platforms.

He did not write about one specific person: Bezos, who bought the paper from the Graham family in 2013 for $250 million. (Note: Slate is owned by Graham Holdings, the company controlled by the Graham family.)

That is because Murray values his paycheck and didn’t want to point out the Post’s real cause of death—namely, that one of the richest people in human history staged a controlled burn to turn it into ash. Bezos wanted the Post to die, because a vigorous, well-resourced Washington Post does not suit his vision for the world or his own bottom line. The end of the Post is a matter not of journalistic economics but of Bezos’ incentives.

Whatever the Post is worth today is immaterial to Bezos’ wealth. It’s barely even what you’d call a rounding error. Bezos could sustain the Post’s operating losses for hundreds of lifetimes without even threatening his current wealth, let alone the additional wealth he and his heirs will amass passively in years to come from his stakes in Amazon, Blue Origin, and who knows what else.

A man worth more than $240 billion does not care even a little bit, in pure dollar terms, about a $100 million annual loss running a prestige business. When Bezos bought the paper, he made clear to the Post’s prior management that he viewed the paper not purely through a profit lens, the New York Times reported. Bezos wrote to Post employees, “The paper’s duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners.” That turned out to be, at best, incredibly misleading.

The Post itself doesn’t affect Bezos’ vast fortune much, but what it represents does. One of the employees he laid off on Wednesday was the paper’s Amazon reporter, Caroline O’Donovan. More critically, even under Bezos’ ownership, the Post frequently published stories that upset the Trump administration, whose vindictive approach to regulation could pose obvious problems for Amazon and Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin.

Related From Slate

Mary ZieglerHow Trump Used a Law Meant to Protect Abortion Seekers to Arrest Members of the Press Read More

Bezos understood this risk more than a year ago, when he drove away 250,000 paying subscribers by stepping in to prevent the paper from endorsing Kamala Harris. Bezos then transformed the Post’s opinion section, away from a broad-based page and into a propaganda arm devoted to promoting “personal liberties and free markets.”

The paper’s executives and owner punted away from aggressively covering Trump’s second term, bleeding both subscribers and a general share of viral stories that instead went to competitors like the Times and Wall Street Journal. There was money to be made by investing in the paper’s reporting staff, who never stopped doing their best to provide honest (and necessarily adversarial) coverage of Trump. Bezos just didn’t want that money.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: The real reason why Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post.

The real reason why Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post. – Slate

The Media

Jeff Bezos Killed the Washington Post

The billionaire wanted the Post to die, because a vigorous, well-resourced newspaper does not help his bottom line.

By Alex Kirshner, Feb 05, 202611:07 AM

Copy Link Share Comment

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.

Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post on Wednesday. The paper survives as a husk, but the institution that became one of the cathedrals of world journalism is gone. The biggest mistake one could make in analyzing this corporate slaughter is to lay the blame solely on the state of journalism. That’d be wrong.

Times are hard in journalism, just like they always are. The big new problem is A.I. swallowing up search traffic, which itself had already sucked up the ad revenue that used to go to newspapers and magazines. Otherwise, all of the things that have been hard for the past 20 years are still hard now. Powerful corporate interests have captured great newsrooms, or run their own old family businesses into the ground. Fox News, social media, and podcasts—in that chronological order—have cocooned a lot of people to want only “news” that isn’t really news. Megyn Kelly is now a red-meat podcaster instead of an occasionally punchy Fox host.

The Post laid off 300 journalists on Wednesday. This included more or less the entire remaining staff of the paper’s legendary sports section, which produced several of the best writers to ever do the job. The days of the superstar columnist with the biggest megaphone in town were long gone, but the section remained tremendous. The paper slashed its international coverage, laying off a journalist who found out as she reported from Kyiv. Many editors across desks lost their jobs. Worst of all, not that it’s a contest, but the Washington Post will now be a lot less Washingtonian. The paper has fired at least a substantial chunk of its metro reporters, who serviced a city and region that have been under a multifront attack from the Trump administration.

In a stiff email, Post executive editor Matt Murray tried to make this move sound like yet another example of a tough business forcing tough decisions. “The ecosystem of news and information, on- and off-platform, is changing radically,” Murray wrote to his staffers, fired and not. He lamented the “serious decline” of search traffic. He wrote of increased competition from other people, other platforms.

He did not write about one specific person: Bezos, who bought the paper from the Graham family in 2013 for $250 million. (Note: Slate is owned by Graham Holdings, the company controlled by the Graham family.)

That is because Murray values his paycheck and didn’t want to point out the Post’s real cause of death—namely, that one of the richest people in human history staged a controlled burn to turn it into ash. Bezos wanted the Post to die, because a vigorous, well-resourced Washington Post does not suit his vision for the world or his own bottom line. The end of the Post is a matter not of journalistic economics but of Bezos’ incentives.

Whatever the Post is worth today is immaterial to Bezos’ wealth. It’s barely even what you’d call a rounding error. Bezos could sustain the Post’s operating losses for hundreds of lifetimes without even threatening his current wealth, let alone the additional wealth he and his heirs will amass passively in years to come from his stakes in Amazon, Blue Origin, and who knows what else.

A man worth more than $240 billion does not care even a little bit, in pure dollar terms, about a $100 million annual loss running a prestige business. When Bezos bought the paper, he made clear to the Post’s prior management that he viewed the paper not purely through a profit lens, the New York Times reported. Bezos wrote to Post employees, “The paper’s duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners.” That turned out to be, at best, incredibly misleading.

The Post itself doesn’t affect Bezos’ vast fortune much, but what it represents does. One of the employees he laid off on Wednesday was the paper’s Amazon reporter, Caroline O’Donovan. More critically, even under Bezos’ ownership, the Post frequently published stories that upset the Trump administration, whose vindictive approach to regulation could pose obvious problems for Amazon and Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin.

Related From Slate

Mary ZieglerHow Trump Used a Law Meant to Protect Abortion Seekers to Arrest Members of the Press Read More

Bezos understood this risk more than a year ago, when he drove away 250,000 paying subscribers by stepping in to prevent the paper from endorsing Kamala Harris. Bezos then transformed the Post’s opinion section, away from a broad-based page and into a propaganda arm devoted to promoting “personal liberties and free markets.”

The paper’s executives and owner punted away from aggressively covering Trump’s second term, bleeding both subscribers and a general share of viral stories that instead went to competitors like the Times and Wall Street Journal. There was money to be made by investing in the paper’s reporting staff, who never stopped doing their best to provide honest (and necessarily adversarial) coverage of Trump. Bezos just didn’t want that money.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: The real reason why Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post.

The real reason why Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post. – Slate

The Media

Jeff Bezos Killed the Washington Post

The billionaire wanted the Post to die, because a vigorous, well-resourced newspaper does not help his bottom line.

By Alex Kirshner, Feb 05, 202611:07 AM

Copy Link Share Comment

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.

Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post on Wednesday. The paper survives as a husk, but the institution that became one of the cathedrals of world journalism is gone. The biggest mistake one could make in analyzing this corporate slaughter is to lay the blame solely on the state of journalism. That’d be wrong.

Times are hard in journalism, just like they always are. The big new problem is A.I. swallowing up search traffic, which itself had already sucked up the ad revenue that used to go to newspapers and magazines. Otherwise, all of the things that have been hard for the past 20 years are still hard now. Powerful corporate interests have captured great newsrooms, or run their own old family businesses into the ground. Fox News, social media, and podcasts—in that chronological order—have cocooned a lot of people to want only “news” that isn’t really news. Megyn Kelly is now a red-meat podcaster instead of an occasionally punchy Fox host.

The Post laid off 300 journalists on Wednesday. This included more or less the entire remaining staff of the paper’s legendary sports section, which produced several of the best writers to ever do the job. The days of the superstar columnist with the biggest megaphone in town were long gone, but the section remained tremendous. The paper slashed its international coverage, laying off a journalist who found out as she reported from Kyiv. Many editors across desks lost their jobs. Worst of all, not that it’s a contest, but the Washington Post will now be a lot less Washingtonian. The paper has fired at least a substantial chunk of its metro reporters, who serviced a city and region that have been under a multifront attack from the Trump administration.

In a stiff email, Post executive editor Matt Murray tried to make this move sound like yet another example of a tough business forcing tough decisions. “The ecosystem of news and information, on- and off-platform, is changing radically,” Murray wrote to his staffers, fired and not. He lamented the “serious decline” of search traffic. He wrote of increased competition from other people, other platforms.

He did not write about one specific person: Bezos, who bought the paper from the Graham family in 2013 for $250 million. (Note: Slate is owned by Graham Holdings, the company controlled by the Graham family.)

That is because Murray values his paycheck and didn’t want to point out the Post’s real cause of death—namely, that one of the richest people in human history staged a controlled burn to turn it into ash. Bezos wanted the Post to die, because a vigorous, well-resourced Washington Post does not suit his vision for the world or his own bottom line. The end of the Post is a matter not of journalistic economics but of Bezos’ incentives.

Whatever the Post is worth today is immaterial to Bezos’ wealth. It’s barely even what you’d call a rounding error. Bezos could sustain the Post’s operating losses for hundreds of lifetimes without even threatening his current wealth, let alone the additional wealth he and his heirs will amass passively in years to come from his stakes in Amazon, Blue Origin, and who knows what else.

A man worth more than $240 billion does not care even a little bit, in pure dollar terms, about a $100 million annual loss running a prestige business. When Bezos bought the paper, he made clear to the Post’s prior management that he viewed the paper not purely through a profit lens, the New York Times reported. Bezos wrote to Post employees, “The paper’s duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners.” That turned out to be, at best, incredibly misleading.

The Post itself doesn’t affect Bezos’ vast fortune much, but what it represents does. One of the employees he laid off on Wednesday was the paper’s Amazon reporter, Caroline O’Donovan. More critically, even under Bezos’ ownership, the Post frequently published stories that upset the Trump administration, whose vindictive approach to regulation could pose obvious problems for Amazon and Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin.

Related From Slate

Mary ZieglerHow Trump Used a Law Meant to Protect Abortion Seekers to Arrest Members of the Press Read More

Bezos understood this risk more than a year ago, when he drove away 250,000 paying subscribers by stepping in to prevent the paper from endorsing Kamala Harris. Bezos then transformed the Post’s opinion section, away from a broad-based page and into a propaganda arm devoted to promoting “personal liberties and free markets.”

The paper’s executives and owner punted away from aggressively covering Trump’s second term, bleeding both subscribers and a general share of viral stories that instead went to competitors like the Times and Wall Street Journal. There was money to be made by investing in the paper’s reporting staff, who never stopped doing their best to provide honest (and necessarily adversarial) coverage of Trump. Bezos just didn’t want that money.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: The real reason why Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post.

A newspaper writing its own death notice

My city no longer has a functioning newspaper. It’s true that the Washington Post still exists as offices in a building on K Street with its name out front, a site and an app, and an increasingly thin printed product–but the guts of the paper, the things that made the Post a local institution, got eviscerated Wednesday as if they were copper wire stripped out of the walls by looters.

The number of journalists fired via e-mails with the needlessly cruel subject line “Eliminated”—at least 300 out of some 800 in an already diminished newsroom–understates the damage inflicted by the Post’s billionaire owner Jeff Bezos, his Fleet Street fraud of a publisher Will Lewis, and Lewis’s spineless executive editor Matt Murray.

(I have to write “at least” because we still don’t know exactly how many people lost their jobs Wednesday, in part because Murray reportedly spiked a staff story about this exercise in institutional arson.)

The sports section is gone. Metro has been cut down to about a dozen reporters, smaller than the current masthead of my college paper. The photographers? Out the door. The foreign desk, among many other cutbacks, will no longer have anybody in the Middle East; decades of American troops on the ground there, sometimes coming home in coffins, no longer qualifies stationing a Post journalist in the region.

Management’s attempts to explain this defy belief: a poorly written letter to readers from Murray in Thursday’s print edition (“We are taking a series of actions, and rethinking some of the ways we do things, amid sweeping changes in our industry”) and his laughable contention to CNN that Bezos “wants the Post to be a bigger, relevant, thriving institution.”

Murray told the remaining staff in a memo that the paper will focus on politics and national security, which might be more workable if the Atlantic hadn’t already poached so many good Post journalists covering those topics. From outside the newsroom, it looks more like Bezos’s plan is to hold the paper’s head underwater until it grows gills.

Every Post reader should view this as an insult, an act of region-wide civic vandalism.

For the growing diaspora of ex-Posties, it feels more like a death in the family. The paper with bookshelves’ worth of Pulitzers was what many of us saw as a career summit worth an arduous ascent. It wasn’t the biggest or the most influential paper, but the chance to out-hustle those snobs at the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal was part of the fun. And the chance to be inspired by and learn from colleagues who could write like angels (to steal a phrase Ben Bradlee threw around in his autobiography) was part of the reward.

I loved working there until my last year or two, when I saw more and more people walk out the door after taking buyouts or early retirement or severance–and then I became one of those people. I remained a reader and a subscriber.

Bezos buying the paper for $250 million in 2013 was supposed to end that grueling decay and give the paper a fighting chance, in the form of ownership immune from stock-market pressure and rich enough to keep paving runway for the Post’s digital reinvention.

And for about a decade, it seemed to work: The paper rebuilt its coverage and staff and advanced its technology, its reporters covered Amazon’s failings rigorously, and Bezos publicly cheered on their work.

But then the Post’s growth during the first Trump administration stopped and reversed under the Biden administration, management squandered numerous opportunities to broaden and build out the Post’s business, and finally Bezos decided to start using the paper’s editorial section as a crude instrument of his own political leanings, starting with spiking an already-written endorsement of Kamala Harris.

Hundreds of thousands of cancelled subscriptions later and after losses that the WSJ reported hit $100 million last year, Wednesday’s careless ransacking of the newsroom represents a complete betrayal of Don Graham, the publisher whom we trusted would have never sold his family’s newspaper unless he had the deepest confidence in the buyer.

It didn’t have to come to this. By the time Bezos realized that owning the Post would never not be “a complexifier” for him, he could have sold the paper. He could have spun it off as a non-profit. He could have deeded it to his ex-wife Mackenzie Scott, who keeps showing herself to be the better billionaire. But having spent an infinitesimal fraction of his growing fortune to buy the Post, Bezos seems unwilling to admit defeat and eat a loss that wouldn’t match his yacht expenses.

To my friends at the Washington Post: I am so sorry this happened to you. This wasn’t your fault, but at least you can escape the newsroom with your honor intact. Here’s who can’t, absent some upcoming arc of redemption that I struggle to imagine: Bezos and his soulless lackeys Lewis and Murray. History and my city will never forgive them for what they did.

A newspaper writing its own death notice

My city no longer has a functioning newspaper. It’s true that the Washington Post still exists as offices in a building on K Street with its name out front, a site and an app, and an increasingly thin printed product–but the guts of the paper, the things that made the Post a local institution, got eviscerated Wednesday as if they were copper wire stripped out of the walls by looters.

The number of journalists fired via e-mails with the needlessly cruel subject line “Eliminated”—at least 300 out of some 800 in an already diminished newsroom–understates the damage inflicted by the Post’s billionaire owner Jeff Bezos, his Fleet Street fraud of a publisher Will Lewis, and Lewis’s spineless executive editor Matt Murray.

(I have to write “at least” because we still don’t know exactly how many people lost their jobs Wednesday, in part because Murray reportedly spiked a staff story about this exercise in institutional arson.)

The sports section is gone. Metro has been cut down to about a dozen reporters, smaller than the current masthead of my college paper. The photographers? Out the door. The foreign desk, among many other cutbacks, will no longer have anybody in the Middle East; decades of American troops on the ground there, sometimes coming home in coffins, no longer qualifies stationing a Post journalist in the region.

Management’s attempts to explain this defy belief: a poorly written letter to readers from Murray in Thursday’s print edition (“We are taking a series of actions, and rethinking some of the ways we do things, amid sweeping changes in our industry”) and his laughable contention to CNN that Bezos “wants the Post to be a bigger, relevant, thriving institution.”

Murray told the remaining staff in a memo that the paper will focus on politics and national security, which might be more workable if the Atlantic hadn’t already poached so many good Post journalists covering those topics. From outside the newsroom, it looks more like Bezos’s plan is to hold the paper’s head underwater until it grows gills.

Every Post reader should view this as an insult, an act of region-wide civic vandalism.

For the growing diaspora of ex-Posties, it feels more like a death in the family. The paper with bookshelves’ worth of Pulitzers was what many of us saw as a career summit worth an arduous ascent. It wasn’t the biggest or the most influential paper, but the chance to out-hustle those snobs at the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal was part of the fun. And the chance to be inspired by and learn from colleagues who could write like angels (to steal a phrase Ben Bradlee threw around in his autobiography) was part of the reward.

I loved working there until my last year or two, when I saw more and more people walk out the door after taking buyouts or early retirement or severance–and then I became one of those people. I remained a reader and a subscriber.

Bezos buying the paper for $250 million in 2013 was supposed to end that grueling decay and give the paper a fighting chance, in the form of ownership immune from stock-market pressure and rich enough to keep paving runway for the Post’s digital reinvention.

And for about a decade, it seemed to work: The paper rebuilt its coverage and staff and advanced its technology, its reporters covered Amazon’s failings rigorously, and Bezos publicly cheered on their work.

But then the Post’s growth during the first Trump administration stopped and reversed under the Biden administration, management squandered numerous opportunities to broaden and build out the Post’s business, and finally Bezos decided to start using the paper’s editorial section as a crude instrument of his own political leanings, starting with spiking an already-written endorsement of Kamala Harris.

Hundreds of thousands of cancelled subscriptions later and after losses that the WSJ reported hit $100 million last year, Wednesday’s careless ransacking of the newsroom represents a complete betrayal of Don Graham, the publisher whom we trusted would have never sold his family’s newspaper unless he had the deepest confidence in the buyer.

It didn’t have to come to this. By the time Bezos realized that owning the Post would never not be “a complexifier” for him, he could have sold the paper. He could have spun it off as a non-profit. He could have deeded it to his ex-wife Mackenzie Scott, who keeps showing herself to be the better billionaire. But having spent an infinitesimal fraction of his growing fortune to buy the Post, Bezos seems unwilling to admit defeat and eat a loss that wouldn’t match his yacht expenses.

To my friends at the Washington Post: I am so sorry this happened to you. This wasn’t your fault, but at least you can escape the newsroom with your honor intact. Here’s who can’t, absent some upcoming arc of redemption that I struggle to imagine: Bezos and his soulless lackeys Lewis and Murray. History and my city will never forgive them for what they did.