The Washington Post

U.S. center-left

Background

The Washington Post was founded in 1877 by Stilson Hutchins as a four-page, Democratic-leaning paper in Washington, D.C. Financier Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1933 and rebuilt its reputation; his daughter Katharine Graham and son-in-law Phil Graham later expanded the paper by acquiring several rival publications. Under Katharine Graham as publisher, the Post published the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and led coverage of the Watergate scandal in the early 1970s, establishing its national reputation for aggressive investigative journalism. The Meyer-Graham family owned the paper for about eight decades before selling it to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, through Nash Holdings, in October 2013 for $250 million. Under Bezos, the Post initially expanded its digital operations and newsroom, but faced sustained losses — roughly $77 million in 2023 and more in subsequent years — and struggled to convert readers into paying subscribers. In October 2024, Bezos blocked the editorial board's planned endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, triggering more than 300,000 subscription cancellations; four months later, in February 2025, he directed the opinion section to publish only content supporting personal liberties and free markets, prompting the opinion editor to resign and another wave of reader cancellations. By early 2026, the Post laid off more than 300 of its roughly 800 newsroom employees, and in May 2026 Bezos publicly announced he would no longer absorb the paper's operating losses, leaving its long-term financial future uncertain.

Sources

1. The Washington Post — Wikipedia
2. Bezos shifts from passive owner to active shaper at Washington Post — GeekWire
3. Will The Washington Post exist in five years? — Poynter
4. Washington Post journalists plea to Bezos: Don't gut our newsroom — NPR
5. Jeff Bezos revamps Washington Post opinion section, leading editor to quit — NPR
6. Bezos' changes at Washington Post lead to mass subscription cancellations — NPR
7. Washington Post publisher disclosed the paper lost $77 million last year — CNN Business
8. The Washington Post — Britannica
9. Jeff Bezos Declares He Will No Longer Financially Subsidize The Washington Post — political.org

Profile compiled 2026-06-25; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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