• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, Yesterday

The 2026 layoff season is here, and it has started with a bang. The Washington Post laid off 30% of its staff on Wednesday, including 300 out of 800 newsroom journalists. 

It was cold. Staffers were told to stay home and attend a Zoom meeting at 8:30 a.m. There they heard from executive editor Matt Murray about a “broad strategic reset,” according to New York magazine. Emails soon followed to those who were getting the ax.

Among the gutted news beats were sports, books, and the metro and foreign desks. 

Criticism poured in on the head of owner Jeff Bezos. 

“The cuts are a sign that Jeff Bezos, who became one of the world’s richest people by selling things on the internet, has not yet figured out how to build and maintain a profitable publication on the internet.” 

That comment was milder than some.  

“This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations,” retired former editor Marty Baron wrote on Facebook. 

Slate added that Bezos has effectively killed the Post, stating, “one of the richest people in human history staged a controlled burn to turn it into ash. Bezos wanted the Post to die, because a vigorous, well-resourced Washington Post does not suit his vision for the world or his own bottom line.”

Some say the killing of foreign and arts coverage supports the Trump agenda.

True or not, this is one of the worst months for layoffs of all kinds since 2009, Aaron Parnas says. 

So what can the outgoing troops count on?

They will receive four weeks of severance after April 10, and will be on the payroll until then. 

Those who have been at the Post for three years or more will receive an additional two weeks of severance for each year they have served, with a cap of 45 weeks, Business Insider writes. 

That’s better than what some publishing companies hand out. But surely, Martin Weil, who has been at the Post since 1965, deserves a better package than that.  

CNN reports that Bezos is still committed to the Post. But he should give it up: sell it at a loss to a nonprofit that can run it like The Baltimore Banner is being run. The surviving journalists should be allowed to pursue the kind of reporting the Post has been known for—indeed, they are trying.  

This venerable institution should not be run into the ground.