The Washington Post’s latest effort to reduce headcount with voluntary buyouts appears to be failing due to a numbness in the newsroom caused by the constant “blows” to morale.
“People are shellshocked and keeping their heads down,” one Post staffer told Fox News Digital.
On Wednesday, Washington Post publisher and CEO Will Lewis offered a blunt ultimatum to staff who aren’t onboard with the “new direction” the paper is taking under its billionaire owner Jeff Bezos.
“I understand and respect, however, that our chosen path is not for everyone,” Lewis wrote in a memo obtained by Fox News Digital. “That’s exactly why we introduced the voluntary separation program. As we continue in this new direction, I want to ask those who do not feel aligned with the company’s plan to reflect on that. The VSP is designed to support you in making this decision, give you the ability to weigh your options thoughtfully and with less concern about financial consequences. And if you think that it’s time to move on to a new chapter, the VSP helps you take that next step with more security.”
The buyout program, first announced in May by Post executive editor Matt Murray, specifically targeted veteran staffers and other departments. The program is set to conclude by the end of July.
The staffer suspects, however, that Lewis’ mid-July message means “people aren’t interested” in taking the buyout despite the turmoil and agony that has erupted in recent months.
“It’s been one set of blows after another. So this memo is par for the course,” the insider says. “Another bomb went off but who notices anymore?”
LONGTIME WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST QUITS PAPER, SLAMS GROWING EDITORIAL CONSTRAINTS UNDER BEZOS
One staffer who wasn’t onboard with the “new direction” of the Post was longtime columnist Joe Davidson, who shed light on what led to his resignation from the paper late last month. It is unclear whether he took a voluntary buyout.
“For me, the cost became too great when a Federal Insider column I wrote was killed because it was deemed too opinionated under an unwritten and inconsistently enforced policy, which I had not heard of previously,” the 20-year Post veteran wrote Tuesday on his Facebook page. “While the policy prohibiting opinion and commentary in News section articles can be justified journalistically, it is a departure from longstanding Post practice and mandated a change in my role that I chose not to accept.”
While Davidson didn’t believe Bezos was directly involved in his column being killed, he wrote, “it would be naïve to ignore the context.”
“Starting before the November presidential election, Bezos’s policies and activities have projected the image of a Donald Trump supplicant,” Davidson said. “The result – fleeing journalists, plummeting morale and disappearing subscriptions. Since October, when Bezos blocked publication of a planned Post endorsement of Kamala Harris for president, the departure of Post talent has been shocking and included five former editors directly above me in the newsroom’s hierarchy.”
“Nonetheless, Post coverage of Trump remains strong. Yet the policy against opinion in News section columns means less critical scrutiny of Trump — a result coinciding with Bezos’s unseemly and well-document[ed] coziness with the president,” Davidson continued.
He later wrote, “As a columnist, I can’t live with that level of constraint. A column without commentary made me a columnist without a column… When Bezos bought The Post, he provided needed money, energy and direction. The Post continues to produce first-rate journalism now, despite his morale-busting actions.”
The Post has suffered a dramatic decline in subscriptions, which was further fueled by multiple boycott campaigns against the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” paper over decisions made by Bezos.
In October, Bezos set off an uproar when he halted the paper’s endorsement of then-Vice President Kamala Harris just days before the November election. Then in February 2025, Bezos announced his directive for the Post’s editorial pages to promote “personal liberties and free markets” and vowed not to publish pieces opposing those principles.
Both instances sparked a mass exodus of paid subscribers and several resignations, including opinion editor David Shipley, who opposed Bezos’ new policy. Last month, the Post tapped Adam O’Neal, formerly of The Economist and The Wall Street Journal, to lead the opinion pages.
The paper has lost a flood of reporters to rival publications in recent months, such as Josh Dawsey, Ashey Parker, Michael Schere and Tyler Pager, in addition to columnists who have quit, like Jennifer Rubin, Eugene Robinson and Ruth Marcus.
A spokesperson for The Washington Post declined to comment to Fox News Digital.
