By Benjamin Mullin, Erik Wemple & Katie Robertson
Washington Post, in late November to send an urgent message: Please do not quit.Murray had known for weeks that Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon and owner of The Post, was planning widespread layoffs to stem over $100 million in annual losses. But Murray felt sidelined in the preparations and had recently told the company’s chief executive, Will Lewis, that he was leaving the paper, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.
Bezos told Murray that he wanted him to help shape a newsroom that would be financially sustainable far into the future, the two people said. And Bezos pitched his strategy: Reduce the newsroom’s budget by half and double the productivity of those who remained, all while protecting some core parts of The Post’s coverage, like investigative journalism. Murray said he would take on that challenge. In a single call, Mr. Bezos had set a new course for The Post and upended the power balance between his top news editor, Murray, and his top business executive, Lewis.
Bezos has said repeatedly since he bought the paper in 2013 for $250 million that he wants the company to break even, not to rely on his largess. He initially invested heavily, and the company thrived for many years, with the newsroom doubling in size.
Bezos stays out of the paper’s day-to-day operations, as he always has. He has not shown up in the newsroom since 2023. But he has dipped in more forcefully in the past two years, resulting in a series of jarring upheavals in strategy and leadership at one of the US’s most decorated news organisations.
Even as he pushed the company for more accountability, Bezos had until recently taken little public responsibility himself for the problems under his watch, including the tumultuous tenure of Lewis, that contributed to an exodus of talent from the newsroom and readership declines. He has insisted that he does not want to sell the company, but also wants to see it perform better.
The newsroom has shrunk by nearly half over the past two years, to about the size it was when he bought it. Lewis departed days after widespread cuts were made in February. What remains are questions about whether Bezos’ strategy will stop The Post’s downward spiral or accelerate it.
Some critics of Mr. Bezos’ actions at The Post have accused him of trying to curry favor with President Trump to support his other companies. He is the executive chairman of Amazon, the main source of his $234 billion fortune; owns and is deeply involved in the rocket company Blue Origin; and recently created an AI start-up, Project Prometheus, where he is co-chief executive.
Although he has expressed public optimism about Mr. Trump, he has told many people at the paper that his goal is the same as always: for The Post to pay for itself.
“Change was necessary to meet our challenges, modernise and advance our overall mission,” The Post said in a statement. “We have an owner who believes that our authoritative journalism is critical to our democracy, and he wants The Washington Post to be successful. We must listen to data from our audience in order to be relevant.”
In early February, a few months after Bezos persuaded him to stay, Murray oversaw the cuts they had discussed, laying off roughly 350 of the paper’s 800 journalists. In a meeting with the newsroom, Murray acknowledged there was “a major cost-savings target that we had to hit.” He then emphasised the importance of “using data intelligently” to inform The Post’s decisions, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The New York Times.
