The Washington Post is hiring again. Two months after Jeff Bezos's paper eliminated more than 300 positions — roughly a third of its workforce — the Post has been quietly bringing back some laid-off staffers, the New York Post reported this week. [1]

The question nobody at the Post will answer: were any of the international correspondents and war reporters fired in February among those rehired?

The February 4 cuts were savage. The Post shut down overseas bureaus, eliminated its Asia and Africa correspondent positions, gutted the books and sports sections, and laid off race and ethnicity reporters. [2] NPR reported the paper would "narrow its focus largely to domestic coverage," a remarkable retreat for an institution whose motto is "Democracy Dies in Darkness." [3]

Then a war started. The US-Iran conflict that erupted in late February created enormous demand for exactly the kind of foreign reporting the Post had just dismantled. The paper found itself covering the most significant American military engagement since Iraq with a skeleton international staff.

The rehires reported so far appear concentrated in digital product and technology roles — the infrastructure Bezos believes will save the paper. [1] No credible reporting has confirmed the return of any correspondent whose beat was international affairs or conflict coverage.

The Post declined to comment on the composition of its rehiring. The irony writes itself: a newspaper that cut its war reporters weeks before a war is now restaffing — but not for the war.

-- ANNA WEBER, Berlin