• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, January 13, 2025

This reporter is a lifelong New Yorker who has been reading the New York Times for decades. Yet when I click on my laptop in the morning, the screen defaults to the Washington Post home page. 

Why the Post? Partly the history, going back to the Woodward-Bernstein, Katherine Graham era.

But even now, I find the Post better written and easier to read than the Times.  

Yet the Times is thriving, while the Jeff Bezos-owned Post appears to be floundering. 

Case in point: opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin has resigned and is starting a publication called The Contrarian with the former White House operative Norm Eisen, according to CNN.

Rubin isn’t shy about pronouncing her disdain for Post management. Her new tagline says: “Not owned by anyone.” 

She argues that “the Post, along with most mainstream news outlets, has failed spectacularly at a moment that we most need a robust, aggressive free press.”

“I fear that things are going from bad to worse at The Post.”

Just what does she mean by that?

“We’ve watched as corporate and billionaire owners of media outlets abused their audiences’ loyalty and undercut journalism’s vital role in a free democracy,” Rubin says, according to CNN. “Instead of safeguarding democratic values, they have enabled the gravest threats to democracy -- Donald Trump and his allies -- at the very time when a robust and independent press is most essential. We need an alternative, truly independent outlet that is unafraid of the administration and unwilling to equivocate or bend the knee.”

That’s one person’s opinion. But in December, cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned over the rejection of her cartoon showing Post owner Jeff Bezos and other tech giants bending the knee to Trump. 

Of course, this isn’t only about personalities. The right-leaning New York Post gleefully writes that the left-leaning Washington Post is down to 2.5 million to three million daily users, compared to the 22.5 million it had when Joe Biden took office in 2021. If true, that's a big hit. And the paper reportedly lost $100 million last year.

Moreover, Bezos is still being condemned for the decision to not endorse Kamala Harris, or any candidate, last year.  

Despite the turmoil, it’s still a very good product. But you have to wonder: With all the headaches, why doesn’t Bezos just sell it?