Why Jeff Bezos gutted the Washington Post - podcast

Wed, 11 Feb 2026

Hundreds of jobs have gone at the newspaper that broke the Watergate scandal. Was profit or politics behind the decision? Jeremy Barr reports

Reporting on a corrupt president made the Washington Post a global sensation with Watergate – and the masthead became a byword for fearless reporting. But last week the news organisation axed about 400 jobs, with some reporters discovering they were being laid off while still in war zones.

Media organisations face tough times with falls in advertising revenues and search traffic, and making cuts is not necessarily surprising. But with Jeff Bezos having bought the company, buying the rights to The Apprentice and making a lavishly produced documentary with Melania Trump, critics are asking whether politics, not profits, are really behind the move.