Washington Post cuts a third of its staff in a blow to a legendary news brand

 

The Washington Post laid off one-third of its staff on Wednesday, eliminating its sports section, several foreign bureaus, and its books coverage in a widespread purge that represented a brutal blow to journalism and one of its most legendary brands.

The Post’s executive editor, Matt Murray, called the move painful but necessary to put the outlet on a stronger footing and to weather changes in technology and user habits. “We can’t be everything to everyone,” Murray said in a note to staff members.

He outlined the changes in a companywide online meeting, and staff members then began getting emails with one of two subject lines — telling them their role was or was not eliminated.

Rumors of layoffs had circulated for weeks, ever since word leaked that sports reporters who had expected to travel to Italy for the Winter Olympics would not be going. But when official word came down, the size and scale of the cuts were shocking, affecting virtually every department in the newsroom.

“It’s just devastating news for anyone who cares about journalism in America and, in fact, the world,” said Margaret Sullivan, a Columbia University journalism professor and former media columnist at the Post and The New York Times. “The Washington Post has been so important in so many ways, in news coverage, sports, and cultural coverage.”

Martin Baron, the Post’s first editor under its current owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos, condemned his former boss and called what has happened at the newspaper “a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction.”

And former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the layoffs “part of a broader reprehensible pattern in which corporate decisions are hollowing out newsrooms across the country.”

In a speech to members of the Washington Press Club Foundation, Pelosi said: “A free press cannot fulfill its mission if it is starved of the resources it needs to survive. And when the newsrooms are weakened, our republic is weakened.”

Journalists pleaded with Bezos for help

Bezos, who has been silent in recent weeks amid pleas from Post journalists to step in and prevent the cutbacks, had no immediate comment.

The newspaper has been bleeding subscribers in part due to decisions made by Bezos, including pulling back from an endorsement of Kamala Harris, a Democrat, during the 2024 presidential election against Donald Trump, a Republican, and directing a more conservative turn on liberal opinion pages.

A private company, the Post does not reveal how many subscribers it has, but it is believed to be roughly 2 million. The Post would also not say how many people it has on staff, making it impossible to estimate how many people were laid off on Wednesday. The Post also did not outline its finances.

The Post’s troubles stand in contrast to its longtime competitor, The New York Times, which has been thriving in recent years, in large part due to investments in ancillary products such as games and its Wirecutter product recommendations. The Times has doubled its staff over the past decade.

Eliminating the sports section puts an end to a department that has hosted many well-known bylines through the years, among them John Feinstein, Michael Wilbon, Shirley Povich, Sally Jenkins, and Tony Kornheiser. The Times has also largely ended its sports section, but it has replaced the coverage by buying The Athletic and incorporating its work into the Times website.

The Post’s Book World, a destination for book reviews, literary news, and author interviews, has been a dedicated section in its Sunday paper.

A half-century ago, the Post’s coverage of Watergate, led by intrepid reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, entered the history books. The Style section, under longtime Executive Editor Ben Bradlee hosted some of the country’s best feature writing.

All Mideast correspondents and editors were laid off

Word of specific cuts drifted out during the day, as when Cairo Bureau Chief Claire Parker announced on X that she had been laid off, along with all of the newspaper’s Middle East correspondents and editors. “Hard to understand the logic,” she wrote.

Lizzie Johnson, who wrote last week about covering a war zone in Ukraine without power, heat, or running water, said she had been laid off, too.

Anger and sadness spread across the journalism world.

“The Post has survived for nearly 150 years, evolving from a hometown family newspaper into an indispensable national institution, and a pillar of the democratic system,” Ashley Parker, a former Post journalist, wrote in an essay in The Atlantic. But if the paper’s leadership continues its current path, “it may not survive much longer.”

Fearing for the future, Parker was among the staff members who left the newspaper for other jobs in recent months.

Atlanta paper also makes cuts

Also on Wednesday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which stopped print editions and went all-digital at the end of last year, announced that it was cutting 50 positions, or roughly 15% of its staff. Half of the eliminated jobs were in the newsroom.

Murray said the Post would concentrate on areas that demonstrate authority, distinctiveness, and impact, and resonate with readers, including politics, national affairs, and security. Even during its recent troubles, the Post has been notably aggressive in coverage of Trump’s changes to the federal workforce.

The company’s structure is rooted in a different era, when the Post was a dominant print product, Murray said in his note to the staff. In areas such as video, the outlet hasn’t kept up with consumer habits, he said.

“Significantly, our daily story output has substantially fallen in the last five years,” he said. “And even as we produce much excellent work, we too often write from one perspective, for one slice of the audience.”

While there are business areas that need to be addressed, Baron pointed a finger of blame at Bezos — for a “gutless” order to kill a presidential endorsement and for remaking an editorial page that stands out only for “moral infirmity” and “sickening” efforts to curry favor with Trump.

“Loyal readers, livid as they saw owner Jeff Bezos betraying the values he was supposed to uphold, fled The Post,” Baron wrote. “In truth, they were driven away by the hundreds of thousands.”

Baron said he was grateful for Bezos’ support when he was editor, noting that the Amazon founder came under brutal pressure from Trump during the president’s first term.

“He spoke forcefully and eloquently of a free press and The Post’s mission, demonstrating his commitment in concrete terms,” Baron wrote. “He often declared that The Post’s success would be among the proudest achievements of his life. I wish I detected the same spirit today. There is no sign of it.”

The U.S. services sector held steady in January, with businesses increasingly worried about supply constraints tied to a data center construction boom powering artificial intelligence.

The Institute for Supply Management survey on Wednesday also showed tariffs on imports and uncertainty remained concerns for many firms, which the ISM said was "potentially the result of annual contract renewals and geopolitical tensions."

President Donald Trump last month threatened additional tariffs on European allies for rebuffing his demands for the U.S. to buy Greenland, before abruptly backing down. Trump, who has imposed sweeping tariffs on trade partners, also said in January he was putting Venezuela under temporary American control after the U.S. captured President Nicolas Maduro.

"Despite a more muted start to the year, we expect service sector growth to accelerate over 2026 as uncertainty fades and economic activity picks up," said Ben Ayers, senior economist at Nationwide. "The service sector stands ready to expand further if enhanced tax incentives and fiscal stimulus lift consumer demand and investment activity into a faster gear."

The ISM said its non-manufacturing purchasing managers index was unchanged at 53.8 last month amid a moderation in new order growth because of a slump in exports. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the services PMI easing to 53.5.

The services sector accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity. The PMI suggested a steady pace of economic activity at the start of the first quarter. Growth this year is expected to be supported by tax cuts.

Eleven service industries, including utilities, construction, retail trade, as well as public administration, accommodation and food services, reported expansion. Among the five industries contracting were wholesale trade and transportation and warehousing.

Comments from businesses were mixed. Some accommodation and food services providers said "the uncertainty of U.S. tariff policies continues to affect our purchasing," adding that "the proliferation of AI is affecting how we purchase services."

Some providers of healthcare and social assistance said they expected AI-related data center construction to "cause constraints in the IT market and availability" in the coming months. Utilities providers reported that "data centers are causing large spikes in requirements," adding that "suppliers are challenged by capacity and tariffs." They viewed the current situation as "exciting and challenging" for the industry.

But the construction industry welcomed the proliferation of data centers, saying they expected "significant business growth in 2026." Elsewhere, retailers reported business in January was "even better," after strong holiday sales across most units, noting that "consumers are still buying discretionary goods."

For finance and insurance firms, business had "stayed pretty consistent" while transportation and warehousing companies experienced a "typical slow start."

Stocks on Wall Street were mixed. The dollar rose against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury yields edged higher.

WILL SERVICES PRICE INCREASES STICK?

The ISM survey's measure of prices paid by businesses for inputs increased to 66.6 amid signs of supply strains, from 65.1 in December. Its gauge of supplier deliveries increased to 54.2, the highest level since October 2024, from 51.8 in December. A reading above 50 indicates slower deliveries.

"Whether pricing increases will stick or expand needs to be closely watched," said Steve Miller, chair of the ISM Services Business Survey Committee.

Cooling services inflation has helped to offset some of the pass-through from tariffs. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said last week that tariffs were likely to be "a one-time price increase." The U.S. central bank last week left its benchmark overnight interest rate in the 3.50%-3.75% range.

The survey's new orders gauge dropped to 53.1 from 56.5 in December. A measure of export orders contracted to 45.0, the lowest level since March 2023, from 54.2 in the prior month. Some respondents in the ISM's January manufacturing survey published on Monday reported that "U.S. geopolitical tensions are fueling 'anti-American' buyer sentiment."

Growth in services employment slowed last month. The ISM said comments from companies included retirements and hiring freezes. The survey's measure of services employment slipped to 50.3 from 51.7 in December.

Slower job growth was evident in the ADP's national employment report, showing private payrolls increased by 22,000 jobs in January after rising 37,000 in December. Economists had forecast private employment advancing by 48,000 jobs.

Annual revisions, however, showed a steady pace of job gains rather than the previously reported weakness and aligned with Powell's assessment that "labor market indicators suggest that conditions may be stabilizing after a period of gradual softening."

The Labor Department's employment report for January, which was due on Friday, will be released next Wednesday after being delayed by the partial shutdown of the government that ended on Tuesday. Economists expect that report to show nonfarm payrolls increased by about 70,000 jobs last month after rising 50,000 in December. The unemployment rate is forecast to be unchanged at 4.4%.

"American companies are reluctant to hire right now," said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union. "They are still cautious given tariffs and uncertainty, and many firms are investing heavily in AI, leaving less money to expand headcount."

​ Alphabet (GOOGL.O)

, opens new tab said on Wednesday that capital expenditure could as much as double this year, in yet another aggressive spending ramp-up by the Google parent as it deepens investments to allay constraints on compute capacity and push ahead in the AI race.

Alphabet and its Big Tech rivals are expected to collectively shell out more than $500 billion on AI this year. Meta (META.O), opens new tab last week, hiked capital investment for AI development this year by 73%, while Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab also reported record quarterly capital expenditure.

The aggressive expansion in outlay comes at a time when investors have increasingly grown concerned about payoffs from AI investments. Google, however, has been able to show strong progress in its AI efforts, and its stock has surged 76% since the beginning of 2025.

"We are seeing our AI investments and infrastructure drive revenue and growth across the board," CEO Sundar Pichai told analysts on a conference call on Wednesday.

Gemini 3 success, AI benefits in ad business drive investor confidence in Google parent

Alphabet executives said that investments in AI computing power capacity - servers, data centers, and networking equipment - were central to the company's plans to target capital expenditure of $175 billion to $185 billion this year, up from $91.45 billion in 2025. Analysts had expected on average that it would spend about $115.26 billion this year, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Alphabet shares were volatile in after-hours trading - falling 6% before recouping most losses to trade down just about 1%, as investors weighed the swell in spending against surging revenue and profit, both of which beat expectations in the December quarter.

The company's cloud business in particular reported stellar growth in the fourth quarter ended December, surging 48% to $17.7 billion, beating analyst expectations. That represented the quickest pace of growth in more than four years.

"We've been supply-constrained, even as we've been ramping up our capacity," Pichai said. "Obviously, our capex spend this year is an eye towards the future."

Pichai said he expected Alphabet to face continued capacity constraints through the year.

Google plans a whopping $175 billion - $185 billion in capex this year

GOOGLE NOW A LEGITIMATE HYPERSCALER ALONGSIDE AMAZON AND MICROSOFT

The launch of Google's Gemini 3 AI model in November reshaped the narrative around Google as an AI laggard. The strong reception propelled the company in the AI arms race and prompted rival OpenAI to issue an internal "code red" to push teams to accelerate development.

Google's enterprise-grade Gemini model has sold 8 million paying seats across 2,800 companies, Pichai said. Last month, Google scored one of its biggest deals yet, a cloud partnership with Apple (AAPL.O), which opens a new tab to power the iPhone maker's AI offerings with its Gemini models.

The cloud division's growth was "importantly higher growth than Microsoft Azure for the first time in several years," helping the parent company to justify the capex hike, said Gil Luria, a D.A. Davidson analyst.

Cloud companies see revenue boost as AI splurge holds up

"Cloud at 48% growth with rapidly expanding margins is no longer a 'show me' story: they showed us," said Ethan Feller, stock strategist at Zacks Investment Research. "Google has established itself as a legitimate hyperscaler alongside Amazon and Microsoft, with AI workloads driving real enterprise demand."

Alphabet executives have touted the cloud as a proof point of AI-driven revenue on past earnings calls, but the most recent quarter suggested newfound confidence in messaging around growth from other parts of the business, like the search engine, that have been bolstered by AI integrations.

Google's Gemini AI assistant app now has more than 750 million users per month, Pichai said, up by 100 million compared with November. Daily queries in AI Mode, a chatbot-like feature in its native search engine, have also doubled since launch.

Gemini has helped the advertising unit to deliver ads on long, complex search queries that were previously difficult to monetize, Google's chief business officer, Philipp Schindler, told analysts.

The company reported total revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, beating analyst estimates of $111.43 billion, per LSEG data. Adjusted profit per share of $2.82 also beat estimates of $2.63.

 Elon Musk vowed this week to upend another industry just as he did with cars and rockets — and once again, he’s taking on long odds.

The world’s richest man said he wants to put as many as a million satellites into orbit to form vast, solar-powered data centers in space — a move to allow expanded use of artificial intelligence and chatbots without triggering blackouts and sending utility bills soaring.

To finance that effort, Musk combined SpaceX with his AI business on Monday and plans a big initial public offering of the combined company.

“Space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale,” Musk wrote on SpaceX’s website Monday, adding about his solar ambitions, “It’s always sunny in space!”

But scientists and industry experts say even Musk — who outsmarted Detroit to turn Tesla into the world’s most valuable automaker — faces formidable technical, financial, and environmental obstacles.

Here’s a look:

Feeling the heat

Capturing the sun’s energy from space to run chatbots and other AI tools would ease pressure on power grids and cut demand for sprawling computing warehouses that are consuming farms and forests and vast amounts of water to cool.

But space presents its own set of problems.

Data centers generate enormous heat. Space seems to offer a solution because it is cold. But it is also a vacuum, trapping heat inside objects in the same way that a Thermos keeps coffee hot using double walls with no air between them.

“An uncooled computer chip in space would overheat and melt much faster than one on Earth,” said Josep Jornet, a computer and electrical engineering professor at Northeastern University.

One fix is to build giant radiator panels that glow in infrared light to push the heat “out into the dark void,” says Jornet, noting that the technology has worked on a small scale, including on the International Space Station. But for Musk’s data centers, he says, it would require an array of “massive, fragile structures that have never been built before.”

Musk is undaunted.

“You can mark my words,” Musk said in a preview of a Cheeky Pint podcast episode airing Thursday. “In 36 months, but probably closer to 30 months, the most economically compelling place to put AI will be space. And then it will get ridiculously better to be in space.”

Floating debris

Then there is space junk.

A single malfunctioning satellite breaking down or losing orbit could trigger a cascade of collisions, potentially disrupting emergency communications, weather forecasting and other services.

Musk noted in a recent regulatory filing that he has had only one “low-velocity debris-generating event” in seven years running Starlink, his satellite communications network. Starlink has operated about 10,000 satellites — but that’s a fraction of the million or so he now plans to put in space.

“We could reach a tipping point where the chance of collision is going to be too great,” said University at Buffalo’s John Crassidis, a former NASA engineer. “And these objects are going fast -- 17,500 miles per hour. There could be very violent collisions.”

No repair crews

Even without collisions, satellites fail, chips degrade, and parts break.

Special GPU graphics chips used by AI companies, for instance, can become damaged and need to be replaced.

“On Earth, what you would do is send someone down to the data center,” said Baiju Bhatt, CEO of Aetherflux, a space-based solar energy company. “You replace the server, you replace the GPU, you’d do some surgery on that thing, and you’d slide it back in.”

But no such repair crew exists in orbit, and those GPUs in space could get damaged due to their exposure to high-energy particles from the sun.

Bhatt says one workaround is to overprovision the satellite with extra chips to replace the ones that fail. But that’s an expensive proposition given they are likely to cost tens of thousands of dollars each, and current Starlink satellites only have a lifespan of about five years.

Competition — and leverage

Musk is not alone in trying to solve these problems.

A company in Redmond, Washington, called Starcloud, launched a satellite in November carrying a single Nvidia-made AI computer chip to test out how it would fare in space. Google is exploring orbital data centers in a venture it calls Project Suncatcher. And Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin announced plans in January for a constellation of more than 5,000 satellites to start launching late next year, though its focus has been more on communications than AI.

Still, Musk has an edge: He’s got rockets.

Starcloud had to use one of its Falcon rockets to put its chip in space last year. Aetherflux plans to send a set of chips it calls a Galactic Brain to space on a SpaceX rocket later this year. And Google may also need to turn to Musk to get its first two planned prototype satellites off the ground by early next year.

Pierre Lionnet, a research director at the trade association Eurospace, says Musk routinely charges rivals far more than he charges himself—— as much as $20,000 per kilo of payload versus $2,000 internally.

He said Musk’s announcements this week signal that he plans to use that advantage to win this new space race.

“When he says we are going to put these data centers in space, it’s a way of telling the others we will keep these low launch costs for myself,” said Lionnet. “It’s a kind of power play.”