On February 4, the Washington Post laid off more than 300 employees -- approximately one-third of its roughly 800-person newsroom [1]. The cuts eliminated the sports section, shuttered several foreign bureaus, and ended standalone books coverage [2]. Former executive editor Marty Baron called it "among the darkest days in the history of the Post" [3]. The Washington Post Guild reported that the layoffs hit journalists of color disproportionately: 50 percent of Hispanic and Latino guild members, 45 percent of Black members, and 43 percent of Asian members were cut, compared to 37 percent of white members [4].

Two months later, the Post is quietly rehiring. The New York Post reported this week that the paper has been bringing back some laid-off staffers, an implicit concession that the cuts were deeper than operational necessity required [5]. The scale of the rehiring has not been disclosed.

Jeff Bezos, who purchased the Post for $250 million in 2013, stayed silent throughout the layoffs. The publisher was not on the call that announced them. The cuts were the largest single-day reduction at any American newspaper in at least a generation, and they followed a period of subscriber losses and advertiser retreat that accelerated after the paper's 2024 decision not to endorse a presidential candidate [2]. The Post that remains is smaller, thinner, and now -- with the rehiring -- a quiet admission that what was destroyed in February cannot easily be rebuilt.

-- ANNA WEBER, Berlin