• by Ray Schultz , October 31, 2024

The Washington Post may be losing subscribers by the hundreds of thousands over its decision to not endorse a presidential candidate (specifically Kamala Harris). 

But The Guardian, which supports Harris, garnered pledges of $2.16 million through Tuesday night from U.S. readers with fundraising emails that pulled $485,000 last Friday alone, according to NiemanLab. 

The email from U.S. Editor Betsy Reed, which linked to the paper’s endorsement of Harris, was titled “On the Washington Post and L.A. Times,” NiemanLab reports. 

Reed wrote as follows: “The L.A. Times and the Washington Post both have a tradition of issuing editorial endorsements, but in this most consequential of contests for our country, they have chosen to sit on the sidelines of democracy and not alienate any candidate. Something these two papers have in common? They both have billionaire owners who could face retaliation in a Trump presidency."

The email continues: “It has never been clearer that media ownership matters to democracy. The Guardian is not billionaire-owned; nor do we have shareholders. We are supported by readers and owned by The Scott Trust, which guarantees our editorial independence in perpetuity. Nobody influences our journalism. We are fiercely independent and accountable only to you, our readers.”

The Guardian, which does not have a paywall, funds itself in part through reader donations.  

The Philadelphia Inquirer, which has also endorsed Harris, pulled more than 4,200 digital subscribers—three times the typical week’s total, Sarah Scire writes in NiemanLab.  

However, The Los Angeles Times -- another paper that declined to endorse a candidate -- lost 7,200 subscribers, that paper reported earlier this week. 

Presumably, some of the Post’s and Times’ subscribers will return when the election is over.  

Meanwhile, an unconfirmed report in The Daily Mail states that Post owner Jeff Bezos has ordered his editors to hire more conservatives.