The Washington Post has announced what it described as “significant restructuring,” at the organisation which includes shutting down its current Sports Desk and scaling back its international reportage footprint. According to Fox News, about a third of the organisation’s workforce has been affected, close to 300 people.Ishaan Tharoor, foreign affairs columnist at The Post and son of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, is among journalists laid off as part of a major restructuring at the US newspaper that has sharply reduced its international coverage.Tharoor said he was “heartbroken” after being laid off, sharing the news in a post on X on Wednesday. “I have been laid off today from the Washington Post, along with most of the International staff and so many other wonderful colleagues,” he wrote.“I’m heartbroken for our newsroom and especially for the peerless journalists who served the Post internationally – editors and correspondents who have been my friends and collaborators for almost 12 years. It’s been an honour to work with them,” Tharoor added. In a separate post, Tharoor described it as “a bad day,” sharing a photograph of an empty newsroom. He also reflected on launching the WorldView column in 2017, saying it had been an honour to help readers make sense of global affairs and thanking the column’s roughly half a million subscribers. Several senior journalists and foreign correspondents confirmed their exits on social media. Will Hobson, an investigative reporter focused on sports, said on X: “Some personal news: I’m among today’s Washington Post layoffs. It was a dream 11-year run as an investigative reporter focused on sports.”Gerry Shih, the Post’s Jerusalem bureau chief, said he was laid off along with much of the Middle East team and international staff across regions. “I’m gone along with the rest of the ME team and the majority of teammates from Delhi to Beijing to Kyiv & Latam,” he wrote, calling it a “sad day.”Cairo bureau chief Claire Parker said the entire roster of Middle East correspondents and editors had been affected. “Hard to understand the logic. But I am grateful for my incredible colleagues,” she wrote.Other journalists impacted include Visual Forensics staffer Nilo Tabrizy, Ukraine correspondent Lizzie Johnson, and Berlin bureau chief Aaron Wiener, who said the Post had decided to eliminate its Berlin bureau. Johnson said she was “laid off by The Washington Post in the middle of a warzone.”National culture writer Jada Yuan and national politics reporter Brianna Tucker also spoke publicly about the layoffs, highlighting the personal and professional toll. “Thinking about my colleagues on the foreign desk living in war zones,” Yuan wrote.Former executive editor Marty Baron described the developments as among the most troubling in the newspaper’s history. “This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations,” Baron was quoted as saying by The Wrap.Reports have also said the cuts include the closure of the Books section, the cancellation of the Post Reports podcast, and further reductions in Metro and international coverage.The Washington Post is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The Washington Post Guild, which represents staff, issued a statement urging Bezos to continue investing in the paper’s journalistic mission. “Without the staff of The Washington Post, there is no Washington Post,” the union said.(With inputs from agencies)
