The Washington Post has eliminated its sports department as part of a sweeping cost-cutting effort at the newspaper.
The job cuts were announced the morning of Feb. 4 by the Post’s executive editor, Matt Murray, during a video call with employees.
“First, we will be closing the sports department in its current form,” Murray told staff, according to the newspaper’s sports columnist Barry Svrluga.
After the meeting, the Post sent individual emails informing affected employees of their status. Sportswriters and editors soon took to social media to announce their departures, including NFL writer Mark Maske, NBA writer Ben Golliver, Commanders reporter Tashan Reed, Capitals reporter Bailey Johnson, college sports reporter Jesse Dougherty, sports analyst Neil Greenberg, investigative reporter Will Hobson, columnist Candace Buckner, and editor Sarah Larimer.
Some of the confirmed layoffs involve longtime staffers. Maske, for example, said he had worked at the paper for nearly 38 years.
The Post’s sports section has a dedicated readership in the Washington metropolitan region and has been home to some of the most notable sportswriters of their time. They include Shirley Povich, who covered baseball during World War II, baseball writer Thomas Boswell, who retired in 2021 after 37 years with the Post, and the late John Feinstein, best known for his coverage of college basketball. All three are in the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame.
Cuts to the sports operation had been anticipated for some time. They come two weeks after the Post said it would not be sending writers to Italy to cover the Winter Olympics, breaking with the paper’s typical robust Olympics coverage. Four writers were ultimately allowed to travel, but did so knowing they were likely to lose their jobs while on assignment, according to former longtime Post columnist Sally Jenkins.
The gutting of the sports section is part of a broader round of reductions across the newsroom and the wider media organization. The Post will also close its standalone Books section, suspend its “Post Reports” podcast, and shrink its international desk.
“The Washington Post is taking a number of difficult but decisive actions today for our future, in what amounts to a significant restructuring across the company,” a spokesperson for the Post said in response to a request for comment.
“These steps are designed to strengthen our footing and sharpen our focus on delivering the distinctive journalism that sets The Post apart and, most importantly, engages our customers.”
The spokesperson also shared a newsroom memo from Murray that went out to staff after the video call, in which he said the paper had “grappled with financial challenges for some time.”
Murray wrote that those financial struggles stem in part from the fact that the journalists “haven’t kept up with changes in how consumers get news and information.”
“Significantly, our daily story output has substantially fallen in the last five years,” he wrote. “And even as we produce much excellent work, we too often write from one perspective, for one slice of the audience.”
The Post is privately owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who bought the paper for $250 million in 2013. The Washington Post Guild, which represents staffers, has been appealing directly to Bezos to halt the layoffs.
According to the union, the paper has shrunk its workforce by roughly 400 people in the past three years.
“These layoffs are not inevitable. A newsroom cannot be hollowed out without consequences for its credibility, its reach and its future,” the union said in a statement, adding that it is planning a rally for Feb. 5 outside the paper’s headquarters.
“If Jeff Bezos is no longer willing to invest in the mission that has defined this paper for generations and serve the millions who depend on Post journalism, The Post deserves a steward that will.”
