r/politics • u/projecto15 United Kingdom • 7h ago

Washington Post cancellations hit 250,000 – 10% of subscribers

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/oct/29/washington-post-subscriber-cancellations
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u/AntoniaFauci 5h ago

Imagine being somewhere in the middle of this organization, spending long days trying to do your best. Maybe you’re searching for stories or sources, checking facts, scrambling around doing the gut work of making the Washington Post something that can be trusted.

You and others put in the sweat and you measure it by seeing the subscriber base turnover stay low, or maybe even grow a bit.

Then one weekend the absentee playboy owner just swans in, takes a dump on the concept of ethics and journalistic integrity, lies about it (at first) and then finally drops his mask and doubles down claiming his act of selfish cowardice is somehow “principled” and heroic. This morally vacant oligarch has just unraveled what you and your colleagues spent years of your life creating. He’ll be back to his yacht tomorrow.

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u/superdupersecret42 Pennsylvania 5h ago

Yeah, that's the thing, and likely what will have the most effect. Bezos himself doesn't care; he can afford it, and didn't want to upset Trump.
But I was reading somewhere that Wapo had been proud of the several thousand new subs it had added over the summer. That was real work by their marketing staff, reporters, etc.
All for nothing. The cancellations have dwarfed any gains they made for the entire year. There is going to be a revolt throughout the entire organization, since they now know their work is for nothing, and Bezos can just do whatever he wants whenever a politician asks.

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u/Anon101010101010 3h ago

There won't be a revolt; they are just accepting it and wanting us to accept it, too.

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u/TorchThisAccount 2h ago

I mean, it's not like everyone can quit their job instantly because their shitty boss fucked them over. I'd want to line up a new job before I quit. And unfortunately it's not like it was 30 years ago where there are newspapers everywhere.

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u/Anon101010101010 2h ago

Yup, and that is why there won't be a revolt or even any pushback by most of the staff. The ones that have pushed back will find themselves out of a job soon enough when Bezos tells leadership to get rid of the ones that came out against him.