In the wake of billionaire owner Jeff Bezos’ decision to block The Washington Post from endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris last week, 200,000 people canceled their digital subscriptions to the news organization by midday Monday, NPR reported—equating to about 8% of the newspaper’s paid circulation.
The number of digital subscribers leaving the Post continued to grow into Monday afternoon, NPR ... [+]
NPR cited two people at the paper with knowledge of the matter in its report claiming hundreds of thousands of subscribers had canceled on Monday, and noted the number of cancellations was continuing to grow Monday afternoon (the Post declined to comment to NPR).
At least two reporters quit over the decision as well, with editor-at-large and former columnist Robert Kagan saying on CNN quitting was an easy decision as the move was “obviously an effort by Jeff Bezos to try and curry favor with Donald Trump in anticipation of his possible victory.”
Bezos has not yet commented on the decision to not endorse.
News that Bezos decided to block the paper from endorsing Harris broke last Friday, and the paper’s publisher and CEO William Lewis said the decision not to endorse was made in an effort to return “to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates” and “in support of our readers’ ability to make up their own minds” about who to vote for.
A Washington Post spokesperson declined to comment to Forbes.
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2.5 million. That’s how many people pay to subscribe to the Post, in print form, digital or both, according to the NPR report.
After being informed of the decision the Post would not endorse any candidate, employees were reportedly “shocked.” By the end of Friday 18 columnists at the paper put out an editorial saying the decision was “a terrible mistake.” Former executive editor Marty Baron—along with former star journalists at the paper Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward—weighed in and criticized the decision, with Baron saying it showed “cowardice” and “disturbing spinelessness.” The Post has regularly endorsed presidential candidates for the last 36 years: The last time it did not endorse a candidate was in 1988, when Republican George H.W. Bush ran against, and defeated, Democrat Michael Dukakis. In both 2016 and 2020, the Post endorsed the candidates running against former President Donald Trump. The editorial board said Hillary Clinton, who ran against Trump in 2016, had “the potential to be an excellent president of the United States, and we endorse her without hesitation,” and in 2020 the board said President Joe Biden was “exceptionally well qualified, by character and experience.”
Billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times Patrick Soon-Shiong also blocked an endorsement the editorial board planned to make for Harris, according to Semafor, which first broke the news. Soon-Shiong pushed back on the narrative that he blocked the endorsement, saying in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the board was asked to “draft a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies by EACH candidate during their tenures at the White House, and how these policies affected the nation,” but the “Editorial Board chose to remain silent.” As a result of the decision, at least three editorial board members resigned and more than 200 staffers sent an open letter to management asking for an explanation. The New York Times reported thousands of people canceled subscriptions, though the exact number is unknown.
Reporters in the LA Times union released a statement last Thursday night acknowledging that many readers are “angry, upset or confused,” but urged them to not cancel their subscriptions. “That subscription underwrites the salaries of hundreds of journalists in our newsroom,” the statement said. “Our member-journalists work every day to keep readers informed during these tumultuous times. A healthy democracy is an informed democracy.” The statement said the union was still “deeply concerned” about Soon-Shiong’s and that it continues to seek answers.
Forbes estimates Bezos to have a net worth of about $206.2 billion as of Monday at 5:20 p.m., making him the third wealthiest person in the world.