New Delhi: As reporters from The Washington Post file dispatches from war zones, protests, and foreign bureaus across the world, a parallel message has taken over their social media feeds: #SaveThePost — a public plea from inside the newsroom against sweeping layoffs that could gut one of America’s most influential newspapers.
The hashtag campaign, launched by Post journalists this week on X, comes amid reports that the paper is preparing for deep job cuts as early as next month, potentially affecting more than 10 per cent of its newsroom, The Guardian reported. The planned layoffs, linked to mounting losses and a restructuring push under CEO Will Lewis, have triggered alarm across desks, particularly foreign, metro, and sports. It has also raised questions about the future of international reportage at the Jeff Bezos-owned publication and the cost of newsroom cutbacks in a shrinking global media landscape.
Since Monday, there have been over a hundred posts from the newspaper’s journalists against the long-rumoured cuts, including India bureau chief Pranshu Verma.
Bezos-owned Amazon is also firing over 16,000 employees in fresh rounds of layoffs.
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Who will WaPo layoffs affect?
According to some reports, the company will be targeting nearly 100 employees in the upcoming layoffs. However, the digital news outlet Puck reported that the layoff “could affect as many as 300 employees”. This, it noted, was the “culmination of a two-year effort” by CEO Will Lewis to “fundamentally transform the paper and reverse hundreds of millions in annual losses”.
When Lewis joined the company in 2023, the newspaper was going through a financial crunch. In 2024, he publicly accepted that it faced a $77 million loss in 2023. In the subsequent year, losses reportedly rose to $100 million.
The sports, metro, and international desks are expected to be among the most affected, according to reports.
Around 60 foreign staff members wrote to Bezos on Sunday, urging him to consider alternative strategies and warning about the cost of reducing international coverage.
“We urge you to consider how the proposed layoffs will certainly lead us first to irrelevance – not the shared success that remains attainable,” the staffers reportedly wrote. The signatories, which included many of the paper’s most prominent international journalists, said they were open to “finding ways to reduce our costs even further” in discussion with management, “while retaining as many jobs as we can”.
“We know what happens when newspapers slash their international sections: they lose reach and they lose relevance,” the staffers wrote.
The New York Times also reported last week that the management had informed staffers in the sports section that the paper would scrap its planned coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics. The report said managing editor Kimi Yoshino told more than a dozen journalists that The Post would not send reporters to the Milano Cortina Games.
The Washington Post Guild had earlier reported that at least 60 journalists were let go with severance packages in 2025 alone. During this time, prominent columnists and veteran reporters across multiple desks left the job.
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‘We in Delhi want to keep doing our jobs’
Journalists across The Washington Post’s global network have posted on X urging Bezos to reconsider the cuts, arguing that foreign reporting, including from war zones such as Ukraine, is among the paper’s core strengths.
India bureau chief Pranshu Verma wrote that since August, his team had reported on how Indian billionaires were treated “far better than others”, the role of Indian conglomerates in fuelling Russia’s war in Ukraine, India’s “draconian deportation campaign” of Muslims to Bangladesh, and the diplomatic “breakdown” between Washington and New Delhi
He concluded his post with a plea to Bezos: “We in New Delhi want to keep doing our jobs so The Post readers can understand the South Asia region better — a wish we hope you share.”
.@JeffBezos, since I came to India early last summer to be the The Post's India bureau chief, one thing was abundantly clear: in India's media ecosystem very few outlets can do accountability reporting without fear of government censure. The Post is one of them. Since August, we…
— Pranshu Verma (@pranshuverma_) January 27, 2026
In another post, deputy regional foreign editor based in London, Paul Schemm wrote about his journey in the newspaper. He was hired for expanding the newspaper’s foreign coverage under the ownership of Jeff Bezos.
“I’ve worked with nearly all of their foreign correspondents in my job to help their work shine. It would be a waste to scrap this brilliant network, one of the few left. #SaveThePost,” he wrote.
Some reporters also drew attention to the hardships they had faced while reporting from the frontlines, whether from Gaza or Kyiv.
“I can’t count the number of times I’ve come under fire or had windows rattle from blasts. Our international staff risk so much to bring home news,” wrote Loveday Morris, a foreign correspondent from the Middle East.
Today a source warned me that my reporting lines could have me killed. Just an average day as a foreign correspondent. I can’t count the number of times I’ve come under fire or had windows rattle from blasts. Our international staff risk so much to bring home news. #SaveThePost pic.twitter.com/FvnLEhEoiQ
— Loveday Morris (@LovedayM) January 26, 2026
A video she posted showed Morris taking shelter in a building while there was bombing outside.
Siobhán O’Grady, the bureau chief in Ukraine, quoted Jeff Bezos’ wife, Lauren Sanchez Bezos, who had called the Ukrainian team “badass beacons of hope”. O’Grady added: “We risk our lives for the stories our readers demand. Please believe in us and #SaveThePost.”
Hi @JeffBezos. We will never forget your support for our essential work documenting the war in Ukraine, which still rages. Your wife has called our team “badass beacons of hope.” We risk our lives for the stories our readers demand. Please believe in us and #SaveThePost. pic.twitter.com/LH8lyGiU6M
— Siobhán O'Grady (@siobhan_ogrady) January 26, 2026
The Washington Post Guild also released a statement on 27 January, saying that it “vehemently” opposes any more layoffs. 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,” it said.
The association also asserted that the Post needs a new “steward” if Jeff Bezos no longer supports the mission of fearless journalism.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)