Exclusive / Rumors of staffing cuts spook Washington Post newsroom

In a post on Facebook earlier this year, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Robert Samuels shared a message with friends about his excitement around covering the Winter Olympics.

“I am still pinching myself that in February I am going to fulfill my childhood dream of covering the Olympics,” he wrote at the conclusion of a lengthy post. “The thought gives me a tremendous amount of childish delight.”

But last week, Samuels was among the Washington Post staffers who were informed via an email, first reported by Semafor Friday evening, that the paper would not be sending sports staff to the Olympics after all.

It was the first overt sign, Post staffers believe, of major newsroom cuts slated to be implemented in the coming weeks. The paper had already sunk tens of thousands into travel costs for writers, The New York Times subsequently reported on Saturday. But Post higher-ups ultimately decided the paper would not send its sports staff to the weeks-long event in Italy, as the Post prepares to implement widespread cuts that could have otherwise left staff stranded at various sporting events across the world. (Major League Baseball Spring Training, which Post reporters historically have also attended, is later in February.)

In recent weeks, rumors have flown around the newsroom about the size of the cuts and when they would be implemented, but the conversation reached a fever pitch late last week, aided by unverified reports about section-wide eliminations. The Post has largely remained silent, leaving staff to read the tea leaves in conversations between individual editors and reporters: Some editors have quietly been suggesting to staff across various verticals, including sports, that it may not be a bad idea to begin looking for other jobs, Semafor has learned, and one Post source said editors would not answer questions about whether there would be a sports section after the cuts at all.

One person familiar with the planned cuts, however, cautioned Semafor against taking the public reporting over the weekend at face value, noting it has been largely based on newsroom rumors, not confirmed facts.

Staff have begun discussing steps they could take themselves, including asking reporters from more secure desks, like national politics, to advocate for sections the paper may view as less essential. Some foreign correspondents have been explicitly told by editors that their jobs are likely to be eliminated, prompting them to send a letter to Post owner Jeff Bezos pleading for the billionaire owner to save their jobs.

“We urge you to consider how the proposed layoffs will certainly lead us first to irrelevance and later extinction — not the shared success that remains attainable,” staff wrote.