The Washington Post has faced an exodus of talent in recent months and remaining staffers, particularly in the Opinions section, are on pins and needles waiting to see where the "Democracy Dies in Darkness" paper is heading.
Billionaire owner Jeff Bezos has routinely irked current and former employees since he famously stopped the editorial page from endorsing former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, prompting several staffers to leave the paper. His latest high-profile decision pushed Opinions section editor David Shipley out the door and put the unit in limbo until a replacement is named, a staffer told Fox News Digital.
Discouraged Post employees feel it’s not the best time to work in the paper’s Opinions section and aren’t sure if Bezos’ relationship with President Donald Trump will impact who replaces Shipley.
Staffers also feel that things haven’t been quite the same since the sudden 2021 death of treasured editorial page editor Fredd Hiatt. At the time, Northeastern University journalism professor Dan Kennedy wrote that Hiatt’s unexpected passing marked the end of "a period of remarkable stability at the top of The Washington Post’s masthead."
JEFF BEZOS ANNOUNCES BIG CHANGE TO WASHINGTON POST OPINION PAGE, TOP EDITOR STEPS DOWN
"Remarkable stability" is certainly not a term that Post’s staffers would use to describe their place of employment nowadays.
Hiatt, who predated Bezos’ takeover of the paper, was eventually replaced by Shipley after a months-long process that saw the paper’s Opinions section go leaderless for the first half of 2022.
Opinions section staffers are currently frustrated that they worked through a long interregnum only three years ago, and now they’re doing that again.
Bezos announced in February that Shipley had decided to step away when the Amazon founder pushed for major changes to the Post’s Opinions section.
"We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others," Bezos wrote on X, announcing the decision.
Bezos said Shipley was offered the opportunity to continue to lead the opinion section and declined. Now, Opinions section employees are aware that it takes quite a while to solicit applicants and conduct interviews for such a high-profile position and staffers are concerned that they’ll either be without a leader for another extended period, or that rushing the process will result in yet another transition in the near future if the hire isn’t up to the task.
Following Bezos’ decision not to endorse Harris, 11 Post opinion columnists wrote a statement calling the decision a "terrible mistake." The decision also irked liberal staffers and readers alike, but Bezos has repeatedly defended the decision.
Eyebrows inside the Post were raised even further since Election Day, as Bezos visited Mar-a-Lago and attended Trump’s inauguration, indicating their once-frosty relationship has healed for the moment.
Trump claimed in a recent interview with OutKick's Clay Travis that Bezos disparaged some of his own newspaper's staffers as "crazy people."
Longtime Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi left the paper in 2023 but keeps a close eye on his former employer and believes morale issues loom large.
"There’s great disappointment in Bezos and widespread suspicion and concern about his relationship with Trump," Farhi told Fox News Digital.
"Still unclear how Bezos’ remaking of the editorial pages is going to play out -- not sure it will be more pro-Trump, although that is also the prevailing suspicion," Farhi added. "My sense is that morale continues to be terrible."
A Washington Post spokesperson declined comment on "personnel updates," but noted a series of recent accolades the Opinions section has achieved, including the inaugural Goldsmith Prize for Explanatory Reporting.
TOP WASHINGTON POST COLUMNIST LEAVES PAPER AFTER 40 YEARS AMID EDITORIAL SHAKEUP BY OWNER JEFF BEZOS
While the Opinions section waits for a new leader, other departments have also hemorrhaged both money and talent.
The Wall Street Journal reported in January that Post "lost around $100 million" in 2024 as subscriptions and ad-revenue plummeting took a toll on the paper. The paper has also seen layoffs and top journalists, including Philip Rucker, Josh Dawsey, Ashley Parker, Michael Scherer, Tyler Pager, Hannah Allam, and Matea Gold have all left.
Longtime liberal columnist Eugene Robinson also left the paper on Thursday, marking the latest high-profile exit. Another liberal columnist, Jennifer Rubin, fled the Post earlier this year in protest of Bezos.
TRUMP APPLAUDS JEFF BEZOS’ CHANGES AT WASHINGTON POST IN RARE MEDIA PRAISE
The Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned from the paper after her bosses rejected her illustration depicting Bezos groveling to Trump. Opinion columnist Ruth Marcus recently announced she was leaving the paper after a 40-year stint, citing Bezos' plans to reshape the Opinions section.
Marcus said Bezos and other tech tycoons who attended the inauguration were akin to being Trump’s "trophies."
"His presence on the inaugural platform conveyed a message of support for Trump that, I can say now, was inappropriate," Marcus wrote in the New Yorker.
Farhi said the "bright side" is that the news side of the Post has "been doing superb reporting" on Trump and DOGE leader Elon Musk’s efforts to crack down on government spending.
Farhi has noticed that Bezos and CEO Will Lewis have refrained from "meddling" in straight-news coverage and that Trump hasn’t been criticizing the paper on social media, which was a common practice during his first administration.
"It’s possible Bezos has come to some kind of truce with Trump, but at great cost to his integrity and to the integrity of the Post," Farhi said.
Fox News Digital’s Hanna Panreck, Rachel del Guidice and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.