The era of the “paper of record” is officially dead, and the bank statements at 1301 K Street have the receipts to prove it.
The Washington Post, the crown jewel of the billionaire-funded activist press, reportedly hemorrhaged more than $100 million in 2025, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
This staggering deficit follows a $100 million loss the previous year, and a $77 million loss in 2023, highlighting a catastrophic downward spiral for the Jeff Bezos-owned outlet that has failed to find a pulse in the modern media landscape.
The financial bloodbath has already triggered a “painful” restructuring, with the Post slashing its staff by a massive 30% earlier this month. In a candid internal meeting held Wednesday, acting CEO Jeff D’Onofrio and Executive Editor Matt Murray laid bare the dysfunction. D’Onofrio revealed that while newsroom costs surged 16% over the last five years, productivity cratered; the number of stories published by the outlet has plummeted by 42% since 2020.
“We’re not a paper of record; there’s no such thing anymore in today’s world,” Murray told the shell-shocked newsroom, a stunning admission of defeat for a publication that once lived by the self-important slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
The financial ruin comes amid a total collapse of the Post’s internal leadership. Just weeks ago, CEO Will Lewis abruptly stepped down, claiming he wanted to ensure a “sustainable future” for the company. His departure followed a brutal year of buyouts and resignations.
The Post has been “bleeding talent,” as veteran liberals—including columnists Jennifer Rubin and Jonathan Capehart—fled the building. Many of these exits were prompted by Bezos’ attempts to steer the paper back toward “timeless American values” and “personal liberties,” a move that reportedly infuriated a newsroom more accustomed to acting as a megaphone for the D.C. establishment than a balanced news source.
As the Post struggles to remain solvent, its desperate pivot to technology has only worsened its credibility crisis. The recent launch of “Your Personal Podcast,” a customizable AI-generated audio tool, turned into an unmitigated disaster. The AI began “spitting out fake quotes” and inventing commentary, forcing editors to scramble to fix errors delivered at scale.
Internal communications showed editors were “infuriated” by the botched rollout, which occurred just as the Trump administration intensified its criticism of the outlet as a top “media offender.”
The Post’s reporting has also faced embarrassing public rebuttals from the Pentagon. Earlier this year, the paper published a widely circulated hit piece on War Secretary Pete Hegseth, alleging he gave a “kill them all” order during a naval operation. The report was swiftly and flatly refuted by Navy Admiral Mitch Bradley, who told Congress the order was never given, exposing the Post’s reliance on “anonymous sources” to push partisan narratives.
With sports departments shuttered and international bureaus shrinking, the Post is now attempting to reinvent itself as a lean, national-focused outlet. But as the “exodus” of both readers and writers continues, it remains to be seen if even the deep pockets of the Amazon founder can save a legacy institution that has effectively alienated half of its potential audience.
