- The Washington Put up mentioned Friday it would not endorse a presidential candidate.
- The paper has since misplaced 8% of paid subscriptions, NPR reported. Some staffers have resigned.
- Experiences recommend Jeff Bezos, who owns the Put up, made the choice to not endorse a candidate.
The Washington Put up’s resolution to not endorse a candidate within the presidential election might have price it a whole lot of 1000’s of subscribers.
Greater than 200,000 folks have canceled their Put up subscriptions since Friday, NPR’s David Folkenflik reported Monday, citing two educated sources.
It is commonplace for folks to cancel information subscriptions over controversial content material or choices, however such protests are not often important or long-lasting.
Within the case of the Put up, the reported numbers symbolize about 8% of its paid circulation of two.5 million print and digital subscribers.
That will be a major setback for Will Lewis, the Put up’s president and CEO, who not too long ago trumpeted that the paper was rising digital subs for the primary time since 2021. A Washington Put up spokesperson declined to remark.
Like most different legacy media, the Put up has struggled to make up for the lack of print-based income and seize subscriber income as readers have migrated on-line.
Lewis, who’s nearing his first yr within the position, mentioned in Could that the Put up misplaced $77 million within the earlier yr and had been shedding digital readers for years. “To talk candidly: We’re in a gap, and we have now been for a while,” he advised staff on the time.
The newsroom can be now grappling with some workers protests and resignations. David Hoffman, who final week accepted a Pulitzer Prize, has give up the editorial board, in response to a resignation word shared on X. Molly Roberts, an editorial author, posted to X over the weekend that she give up. Columnist Michele Norris and editor at giant Robert Kagan have left the paper. Nineteen opinion columnists signed a column protesting the choice.
The choice has stoked fears that information retailers are censoring themselves in concern of former President Donald Trump, who has publicly referred to as for revenge in opposition to his enemies. The Los Angeles Occasions endorsed statewide candidates however declined to endorse a presidential candidate this yr, prompting three workers resignations.
The New York Occasions reported on Sunday that Jeff Bezos, the Washington Put up’s proprietor since 2013, voiced reservations in late September about operating an endorsement.
The Occasions additionally reported that the Put up’s opinion editor, David Shipley, advised staffers Monday he had “tried arduous to dissuade Mr. Bezos” and that Shipley “didn’t clarify what rationale, if any, Mr. Bezos gave for his resolution.”
Representatives for Bezos didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The Put up had beforehand shared a press release from Lewis calling reporting round Bezos’ position within the state of affairs inaccurate, saying: “He was not despatched, didn’t learn and didn’t opine on any draft. As Writer, I don’t consider in presidential endorsements. We’re an impartial newspaper and may help our readers’ potential to make up their very own minds.”
