As the Washington Post faces a wave of job cuts, its journalists have turned to the publication’s owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos, pleading for the preservation of their positions. Meanwhile, Bezos’ wife, Lauren Sanchez, has been making headlines for her fashion choices at the glamorous Paris Fashion Week.
Reports suggest that as many as 300 employees could be impacted by the impending layoffs. CEO Will Lewis is steering a transformation aimed at reversing the paper’s substantial financial losses, according to insights shared by Puck.
In response to the unsettling news, the hashtag #SavethePost has been gaining momentum online, with both current and former journalists rallying to support the cause.
In stark contrast to the tensions back home, Bezos was seen accompanying Sanchez at the Christian Dior Haute Couture show in Paris. Sanchez made a striking appearance in a pale blue ensemble accentuated by a luxurious fur collar.
Back in the U.S., Washington Post staff members are vocally opposing the proposed job cuts, urging Bezos to abandon these plans. The Washington Post Guild issued a statement expressing their strong opposition to further reductions in the newspaper’s workforce.
In a statement, the Washington Post Guild wrote: ‘The Post Guild vehemently opposes any more cuts to the staff of The Washington Post.
‘As we’ve seen in recent years, continuing to eliminate scores of workers who make this storied institution what it is only stands to weaken the newspaper, drive away readers and undercut The Post’s mission: to hold power to account without fear or favor and provide critical insight into communities across the region, country and world.
‘If Jeff Bezos no longer supports that mission, then The Post and its readers deserve a steward who does.’
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and wife Lauren Sanchez at were at the Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2026 show in Paris Monday
WaPo staffers like Ukrainian bureau chief Siobhan O’Grady (right) were beseeching Bezos for financing after reports over the weekend indicated layoffs were on the horizon
CEO Will Lewis has reportedly decided to focus the paper on ‘core coverage areas’ like national security and politics. The sports desk is expected to bear the brunt of the costs, according to Puck.
Individual staffers responded to news of the cuts, including Mexico bureau chief Samantha Schmidt.
Schmidt wrote: ‘As international correspondents and reporters for the @washingtonpost, we risk our safety to investigate authoritarian governments, report from gang-controlled towns and document evidence of stolen elections.
‘This on-the-ground reporting is more critical than ever.’
Ukrainian bureau boss Siobhan O’Grady tagged Bezos in her post, which thanked the mogul for his ‘support for our essential work documenting the war in Ukraine, which still rages.
‘Your wife has called our team “badass beacons of hope,”’ O’Grady went on.
‘We risk our lives for the stories our readers demand. Please believe in us and #SaveThePost,’
Attached was a photo of her, a colleague, and a Ukrainian soldier out in the field, taking cover in a trench on the battlefield.
Souad Mekhennet similarly told Bezos: ‘I cover international security for @washingtonpost and reported on ISIS, Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, al-Qaeda, Iran and Israel.
‘I’ve been imprisoned, lived under threats, and escaped kidnappings to do this work. #Journalism matters to America and the world.’
Global economics correspondent David J. Lynch and Turkish correspondent Yeganeh Torbati both beseeched Bezos as well.
The hashtag ‘Save the Post’ was birthed as a result, with many journalists electing to tag the billionaire directly
Bezos bought the paper for $250million in 2013 and – despite decreasing readership – has said he intends for the venture to be ‘profitable’
Bezos bought the paper for $250 million in 2013 and has previously said he intends for the venture to be ‘profitable’. He is worth an estimated $250 billion, according to Forbes.
The Post has laid off hundreds of staffers since 2023. It has also offered workers several rounds of buyouts.
In September 2024, the Post’s then-new CEO Lewis issued a statement detailing how dire the publication’s financial situation was, promising staffers, ‘We are going to turn this thing around.’
Revealting that the paper’s audience ‘has halved in recent years’, the former Financial Times reporter flat-out told his staff: ‘People are not reading your stuff.’
A series of exits followed, at a time where Washington was just surfacing the biggest story in the not just the country but the world.
The situation was worsened when Bezos pulled a last-minute Post endorsement of then-candidate Kamala Harris at the eleventh hour, inciting anger from both staff and readers.
Even more exits followed a Bezo-led overhaul of the Post’s opinion section early last year to meant to focus on ‘personal liberties and free markets,’ Bezos wrote in a statement to staffers at the time.
Her married longtime girlfriend Sanchez in June, in a ceremony in Venice. The pair met in 2016 when they were each married to other people. They made their relationship official in 2019, after Bezos’s divorce from ex-wife MacKenzie Scott.
Scott was married to Bezos for 25 years and has donated $26.3 billion of her $33 billion divorce settlement to nonprofits since 2019.
