What WaPo editor Matt Murray told Puck about Bezos, layoffs and the publisher
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Matt Murray speaks during a June 2024 staff meeting in Washington, D.C., that grew tense after questions over the exit of executive editor Sally Buzbee. Photo: Robert Miller/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray outlined the historic paper's future following the hundreds of layoffs Thursday in a new interview with Puck News.
The big picture: The layoffs represent one of the Post's sharpest workforce reductions and have been criticized as "tragic" and an "attempt to kill what makes the paper special" by current and former Post employees alike.
- Murray, who announced the cuts Thursday morning on a call with employees, said the Post's recent subscriber gains offer a positive sign for the future.
- "It has been a tough week and we're still kind of sorting it out and hoping that the dust settles," he told Dylan Byers, host of Puck's "The Grill Room" podcast.
Here's what he told Puck about the layoffs and state of the Post.
Murray defends WaPo layoffs
Murray said the layoffs and cuts were a way of "resetting the cost base" for financial stability that would "allow the company to keep up with the times."
- "It's a steep cut," he told Byers. But the hope, he said, was to "go deep and not have to do it ever again, and to put ourselves in a different position."
- "It's incredibly heartbreaking and difficult," he said. "It's the hardest single thing you can do in a job like mine."
Murray doesn't know the size of the Post
- "The total size of the company? I actually don't know what the total size of the workforce is... We've taken several rounds of reductions over the last 18 months," Murray said.
The new Washington Post strategy
Murray told other news outlets Thursday that the Post plans to lean into coverage of politics, national security, culture, health and wellness — but veer away from sports, arts criticism and local news.
- "We can't be all things to all people," Murray told the NYT.
Though Murray did not offer specifics, he told Puck that the Post's newsroom will be encouraged to use data to make decisions on coverage and pick up on "reader's signals."
- "We are living in a different kind of world that is a data, reader-centric world," he said.
- "We want to be with the people who are rising, who want political news, who want our health and wellness coverage and are coming to us for that."
Murray on Will Lewis
Inside the room: Murray explained why the Post's publisher, Will Lewis, wasn't on the call to announce the layoffs.
- "We talked about it and agreed that we wanted the people closest to the businesses, closest to the people, to be articulating and that happened across the company yesterday," he told Byers.
Internal newsroom tension over Lewis
Friction point: There's some internal expectation that Lewis should be more hands-on, Murray said, but Murray said he wants to handle the hands-on role.
- "There's clearly some things we have to work through there," he said.
- "Sometimes I think Will even gets maybe perhaps implicated for my dumb ideas."
Murray on meetings with Bezos
Murray said he and Lewis met with owner Jeff Bezos about the cuts, too.
- "Journalism is what Jeff cares about. Journalism is what Will cares about."
- "Will and me are going to be judged on whether we succeed in growth or not."
Listen to the full podcast on Puck ... Spotify ... Apple Music.
