OT: Washington Post layoffs

[WestCoastWildcat]

Washington Post Eliminates Sports Department in Mass Layoffs

The Jeff Bezos-owned paper is cutting hundreds of jobs and getting rid of its sports section.

frontofficesports.com

Was sad to see news of 300 staff of the Washington Posf losing their jobs including the elimination of the entire sports desk representing a subset of 45 positions. Some sport writers will be retained as feature writers. The link above lists sports staff who are departing.
Anyone recognize writers on the list?

I think this is just another blow to sports journalism and other coverage by the WP.
International coverage will also be curtailed. Would like to hear others comment on the potential impact and trend in the field. Impacts on other areas like education- I wonder how Medill is reacting to layoffs like this?

Also this link also about the layoffs directed more to the sports desk.

The Washington Post eliminates sports section as part of wider layoffs

The Post's sports section was a longstanding foundation for sports fans in the D.C. region.

www.nytimes.com

 

[hdhntr1]

Washington Post Eliminates Sports Department in Mass Layoffs

The Jeff Bezos-owned paper is cutting hundreds of jobs and getting rid of its sports section.

frontofficesports.com

Was sad to see news of 300 staff of the Washington Posf losing their jobs including the elimination of the entire sports desk representing a subset of 45 positions. Some sport writers will be retained as feature writers. The link above lists sports staff who are departing.
Anyone recognize writers on the list?

I think this is just another blow to sports journalism and other coverage by the WP.
International coverage will also be curtailed. Would like to hear others comment on the potential impact and trend in the field. Impacts on other areas like education- I wonder how Medill is reacting to layoffs like this?

Also this link also about the layoffs directed more to the sports desk.

The Washington Post eliminates sports section as part of wider layoffs

The Post's sports section was a longstanding foundation for sports fans in the D.C. region.

www.nytimes.com

The paper is not making any money and while Bezos may have been willing to buy it, subsidizing it year after year is likely not something he is anxious to do, Papers in general, have seen their business model is no longer profitable and the WPs policies and approach has alienated half of their potential customers. THat takes it from losing a little money to hemoraging cash with no end in sight, Bezos is, afterall a, a business person and this is a logical business decision.

 

[CatManTrue]

Washington Post Eliminates Sports Department in Mass Layoffs

The Jeff Bezos-owned paper is cutting hundreds of jobs and getting rid of its sports section.

frontofficesports.com

Was sad to see news of 300 staff of the Washington Posf losing their jobs including the elimination of the entire sports desk representing a subset of 45 positions. Some sport writers will be retained as feature writers. The link above lists sports staff who are departing.
Anyone recognize writers on the list?

I think this is just another blow to sports journalism and other coverage by the WP.
International coverage will also be curtailed. Would like to hear others comment on the potential impact and trend in the field. Impacts on other areas like education- I wonder how Medill is reacting to layoffs like this?

Also this link also about the layoffs directed more to the sports desk.

The Washington Post eliminates sports section as part of wider layoffs

The Post's sports section was a longstanding foundation for sports fans in the D.C. region.

www.nytimes.com

This is another pathetic example of an overempowered billionaire buying something just to ruin it. Much like Patrick Soon-Shiong with the Los Angeles Times (he is not my kind of guy, simply a cheap salesman in a nicer suit).

Bezos is scummy by evidence of how he has treated most Amazon warehouse employees, and these cuts are likely vindictive. He could have kept the staff and improved the Post if he wanted, but he doesn’t.

Maybe Jeff Bezos is angry because his wife is ugly due to all the plastic surgery

He could have done much better if he wanted

 

[hdhntr1]

This is another pathetic example of an overempowered billionaire buying something just to ruin it. Much like Patrick Soon-Shiong with the Los Angeles Times (he is not my kind of guy, simply a cheap salesman in a nicer suit).

Bezos is scummy by evidence of how he has treated most Amazon warehouse employees, and these cuts are likely vindictive. He could have kept the staff and improved the Post if he wanted, but he doesn’t.

Maybe Jeff Bezos is angry because his wife is ugly due to all the plastic surgery

He could have done much better if he wanted

The WP was a money losing operation long before Bezos got involved, Bezos did not ruin it, It was already on the way to ruin when he bought it, He was seen as a white knight, and he bought them a couple years. But it has gone from bad to worse and at this point the hemorhaging of cash was just too great to continue unabated, Bezos put up with it for a while but at a certain point he just said "No Mas" and costs had to be cut. And if you feel you can do better, maybe you can put up the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars it will take to keep them afloat with the old business model

Los Angeles Times is not much different, Both needed a different business plan than they had in order to survive. In fact most major city newspapers face the same issues, Chicago Tribune is a shadow of what it was and has become such a piece of trash that not sure how long they will survive, Their model was based on ad revenues and they (those ads) have basically disappeared, And they aren't necessarily helped by their one sided approach to the news

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

This is another pathetic example of an overempowered billionaire buying something just to ruin it. Much like Patrick Soon-Shiong with the Los Angeles Times (he is not my kind of guy, simply a cheap salesman in a nicer suit).

Bezos is scummy by evidence of how he has treated most Amazon warehouse employees, and these cuts are likely vindictive. He could have kept the staff and improved the Post if he wanted, but he doesn’t.

Maybe Jeff Bezos is angry because his wife is ugly due to all the plastic surgery

He could have done much better if he wanted

Just like you say about the Rock, why pay for biased opinions and misleading information when you can get it for free on the internet?

 

[CatManTrue]

Just like you say about the Rock, why pay for biased opinions and misleading information when you can get it for free on the internet?

The Rock would be much more worth it than the WP.

Hopefully he doesn’t by the NYT or WSJ.

 

[Sheffielder]

What is both interesting and admittedly kind of sad is that I've probably spent more on my annual subscriptions to this site than I have on all news media combined, ever.

I think traditional news media needs to find a different revenue model, and fast. Watching it die the slow death that it is/has been and hoping that tomorrow is the day millions more people will suddenly pay for subscriptions or ad space is just...stupid.

 

[hdhntr1]

The Rock would be much more worth it than the WP.

Hopefully he doesn’t by the NYT or WSJ

It wasn't Bezos that destroyed the WP. It was the WP.that did it to themselves, NYTs is facing similar issues. NYTs being bigger will take longer to die. It won't be Bezos (or someoen like him) that kills the NYTs It will be the NYT that kills the NYT

WSJ has a different business model and serves different purposes, They are not totally immune but likely far less vulnerable

 

[CatManTrue]

It wasn't Bezos that destroyed the WP. It was the WP.that did it to themselves, NYTs is facing similar issues. NYTs being bigger will take longer to die. It won't be Bezos (or someoen like him) that kills the NYTs It will be the NYT that kills the NYT

WSJ has a different business model and serves different purposes, They are not totally immune but likely far less vulnerable

To be clear I never read the WP aside from the occasional article.

What did they do to destroy themselves?

 

[phatcat_rivals223240]

Just like you say about the Rock, why pay for biased opinions and misleading information when you can get it for free on the internet?

I've heard that the Post is a hard place to work. So are you really asking CMT to choose between The Rock and a hard place?

 

[hdhntr1]

To be clear I never read the WP aside from the occasional article.

What did they do to destroy themselves?

First you have to see and understand what has been happening in the newspaper industry in general. Declining revenue from subscriptions and other sources, Others at least have tried to adapt. The mere fact that they still had 300 staff (what is that about $45 million in payroll costs alone that they are in the process of cutting?) to lay off indicates that they did not really try to adapt while the whole industry has been imploding.

If that is not enough, then they have their bias (which they continually double down on ) which alienates a pretty large segment of their potential customers and makes them a target., (Not good to be continuously on the wrong side of 80-20 issues)

Look, I still get Chicago Tribune but I went from 7 days a week to two and I seriously consider getting rid of it entirely. The product has become garbage, It takes all of 30 minutes to get through a Sunday edition, Ads are gone, coverage is terrible and bias is extreme, Why bother. Unless you need something to wrap dead fish in. WaPo is that on steroids

 

[Hungry Jack]

This is another pathetic example of an overempowered billionaire buying something just to ruin it. Much like Patrick Soon-Shiong with the Los Angeles Times (he is not my kind of guy, simply a cheap salesman in a nicer suit).

Bezos is scummy by evidence of how he has treated most Amazon warehouse employees, and these cuts are likely vindictive. He could have kept the staff and improved the Post if he wanted, but he doesn’t.

Maybe Jeff Bezos is angry because his wife is ugly due to all the plastic surgery

He could have done much better if he wanted

WAPO was financially broken long before Bezos bought it

 

[CatManTrue]

WAPO was financially broken long before Bezos bought it

Why the Hell did he buy it? He is not worried about making money from this and has other motives.

 

[Hungry Jack]

Why the Hell did he buy it? He is not worried about making money from this and has other motives.

The crosswords?

 

[techtim72]

WaPo made a decision over a decade ago on what they wanted to focus on, how they would focus on it and damn a large percentage of their subscriber base. As an example they decided to give daily doses to many of their customers criticizing them that they were racist, homophobic and worse. So they made a choice and they rode with their remaining customers who proved to be unrelentingly angry, judgemental and self-righteous along with being disloyal anytime they read anything they didn't like, right into the ground together. Being a subscriber of fifty years it was all so predictable and difficult to witness.

 

[WestCoastWildcat]

When I was growing up I enjoyed all varieties of print media- newspapers, magazines like SI, Life and National Geographic. I played sports but also wrote for the high school newspaper. With the shrinkage in print media jobs it seems there must be a downstream impact on the educational institutions like Medill that must look at ways to adapt to a field where the future for careers looks bleak.

 

[techtim72]

Oh, there are plenty of "journalists". Most have qualifications developed on blogs and other social media sites. Formal training not so much. Anytime in the past I have mentioned that is a field that can use credentialing and professional licensure of some sort I was bludgeoned with the First Amendment. Events have taken over that idea and now anyone with a phone can claim the "press" ID. My guess is Medill is a dinosaur.

 

[WestCoastWildcat]

This is another pathetic example of an overempowered billionaire buying something just to ruin it. Much like Patrick Soon-Shiong with the Los Angeles Times (he is not my kind of guy, simply a cheap salesman in a nicer suit).

Bezos is scummy by evidence of how he has treated most Amazon warehouse employees, and these cuts are likely vindictive. He could have kept the staff and improved the Post if he wanted, but he doesn’t.

Maybe Jeff Bezos is angry because his wife is ugly due to all the plastic surgery

He could have done much better if he wanted

The roles of pirates like Bezos, Soon-Shiong and esp. hedge fund Alden Global Capital cannot be understated. Looking at chequered history of the decline of print media companies like the LA Times and Chicago Tribune it seemed like the values of the media companies decreased with each round of aquisitions over the years. Alden Global Capital in particular has been singled out as a detrimental player acquiring media companies only to strip their assets, tinker with pension plans and layoff staff.

Tribune Publishing - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Alden Global Capital - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The impact of the loss of newspapers as a civic resource for communities needs to be considered. Some of the magazines also represented appealing artistic design. It’s sad to see these publications disappear that have been with us for so long.

 

[Hungry Jack]

The roles of pirates like Bezos, Soon-Shiong and esp. hedge fund Alden Global Capital cannot be understated. Looking at chequered history of the decline of print media companies like the LA Times and Chicago Tribune it seemed like the values of the media companies decreased with each round of aquisitions over the years. Alden Global Capital in particular has been singled out as a detrimental player acquiring media companies only to strip their assets, tinker with pension plans and layoff staff.

Tribune Publishing - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Alden Global Capital - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The impact of the loss of newspapers as a civic resource for communities needs to be considered. Some of the magazines also represented appealing artistic design. It’s sad to see these publications disappear that have been with us for so long.

So the billionaires should be expected to subsidize these money losing ventures for the sake of society?

Please name a print publication that is doing well. The Santa Barbara Independent maybe?

 

[WestCoastWildcat]

This is another pathetic example of an overempowered billionaire buying something just to ruin it. Much like Patrick Soon-Shiong with the Los Angeles Times (he is not my kind of guy, simply a cheap salesman in a

The local San Diego paper has been impacted by loss of staff after almost 150 years of private family ownership. It was part of the LA Times acquisition that got spun off when acquired by Alden Capital.

 

[hdhntr1]

WaPo made a decision over a decade ago on what they wanted to focus on, how they would focus on it and damn a large percentage of their subscriber base. As an example they decided to give daily doses to many of their customers criticizing them that they were racist, homophobic and worse. So they made a choice and they rode with their remaining customers who proved to be unrelentingly angry, judgemental and self-righteous along with being disloyal anytime they read anything they didn't like, right into the ground together. Being a subscriber of fifty years it was all so predictable and difficult to witness.

Thanks for filling in what I thought but did not have enough first hand knowledge to fully push, That said, they had something like 13 climate "journalists" pushing an agenda. I have to imagine that there were other areas with similar redundancy as well, Pretty hard to make something like that profitalble

 

[hdhntr1]

So the billionaires should be expected to subsidize these money losing ventures for the sake of society?

Please name a print publication that is doing well. The Santa Barbara Independent maybe?

Numerous trade magazines seem to be doing quite well. Epoch Times is a weekly that seems to be doing pretty well. Some of their stuff on health is really informative

 

[Eurocat]

Please name a print publication that is doing well. The Santa Barbara Independent maybe?

NY Post. I think it's sister publication WSJ is doing good too. Heck Murdoch just OPENED a new newspaper to serve California a few weeks ago.

The hidden biggest income from newspapers. at least as I have understood it was not from subscribers and not even not from the big full page advertisers, it was from the classifieds. When "I am selling a used car, call Mike at 555-1212" went to the internet much of newspaper revenue rapidly went south.

 

[Hungry Jack]

NY Post. I think it's sister publication WSJ is doing good too. Heck Murdoch just OPENED a new newspaper to serve California a few weeks ago.

The hidden biggest income from newspapers. at least as I have understood it was not from subscribers and not even not from the big full page advertisers, it was from the classifieds. When "I am selling a used car, call Mike at 555-1212" went to the internet much of newspaper revenue rapidly went south.

Yup. Started with Craigslist.

 

[TheC]

Losing newspapers is not such a big deal as it's an ancient format. However, losing skilled reporters covering a variety of topics including local news is the real tragedy. A lot of our media consumption is now visual as in tv, online videos, even Instagram. The problem is that we let TV news turn into entertainment where our journalists were celebrities first and journalists second. Not sure how you fix that now, but a strong, independent media is crucial for the health of a society and so vitally important now more than ever.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

Losing newspapers is not such a big deal as it's an ancient format. However, losing skilled reporters covering a variety of topics including local news is the real tragedy. A lot of our media consumption is now visual as in tv, online videos, even Instagram. The problem is that we let TV news turn into entertainment where our journalists were celebrities first and journalists second. Not sure how you fix that now, but a strong, independent media is crucial for the health of a society and so vitally important now more than ever.

Good thing for society there weren’t very many skilled reporters at WAPO.

Joke of an organization finally loses enough money that the have to make big cuts. I’d day learn to code except AI is already getting really good at that, so maybe learn to plumb.

 

[NU'06er]

Please name a print publication that is doing well.

Cheating because it has so successfully moved online, but The Onion doesn't seem to be hurting for material these days...

 

[hdhntr1]

Why the Hell did he buy it? He is not worried about making money from this and has other motives.

He needed a hobby? But then he found out just how expensive it was.

 

[Hungry Jack]

Good thing for society there weren’t very many skilled reporters at WAPO.

Joke of an organization finally loses enough money that the have to make big cuts. I’d day learn to code except AI is already getting really good at that, so maybe learn to plumb.

Maybe those reporters can go work for NPR

 

[NU'06er]

He needed a hobby? But then he found out just how expensive it was.

The venerable Rodger Sherman's take on Bezos's WaPo losses:

https://bsky.app/profile/rodger.bsky.social/post/3me2gptf5rs2o

 

[hdhntr1]

Maybe those reporters can go work for NPR

NPR is not hiring

 

[hdhntr1]

The venerable Rodger Sherman's take on Bezos's WaPo losses:

https://bsky.app/profile/rodger.bsky.social/post/3me2gptf5rs2o

Typical, It is Bezos's money yet they all want to tell him how to spend it, $100 million in losses per year and rising,, Even with these cuts it still will lose a lot of money

 

[Hungry Jack]

The venerable Rodger Sherman's take on Bezos's WaPo losses:

https://bsky.app/profile/rodger.bsky.social/post/3me2gptf5rs2o

funny how no one on Blue Sky complains about George Soros' wealth

 

[CappyNU]

This thread:

 

[stpaulcat]

I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post......

 

[Hungry Jack]

I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread. I will not post in this thread......

Come on, man. Let 'er rip! It's Friday!

 

[NU'06er]

Come on, man. Let 'er rip! It's Friday!

I mean, I think we can mostly read between the lines of people's political opinions as to where there's gonna be room for common ground and where agreeing to disagree is the best case scenario, given how polarized our country is these days.

I'm not trying to take on the Herculean task of engaging on people's broader views of the media or Bezos or Soros, etc. People think what they think. I just figured as a notable alum, Sherman's take was a worthwhile annotation to the thread with an at least reasonable Northwestern connection. (Also thinking of those NU alums working at the Post who I feel for regardless of one's opinions about the paper. Shrug.)

 

[CatManTrue]

Typical, It is Bezos's money yet they all want to tell him how to spend it, $100 million in losses per year and rising,, Even with these cuts it still will lose a lot of money

$100M is a rounding error to someone of Bezos’s wealth.

It’s pure ego.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

The venerable Rodger Sherman's take on Bezos's WaPo losses:

https://bsky.app/profile/rodger.bsky.social/post/3me2gptf5rs2o

I love Rodger, but 1. It isn’t Bezo’s job to just endlessly lose money on something that is supposed to be a business and 2. It’s not like sports reporters even fulfill the (usually self important and arrogantly stated but still true) need societal role of journalists providing information and investigating the actions of our governments and sources of power. Sports is the toy department, and sports, frankly, is supposed to be a revenue driver to help support the more serious news. If they couldn’t even be profitable in SPORTS…

 

[AdamOnFirst]

This thread:

Let us have it out man, it’s boring as hell around here since UW landed Miller