The Washington Post saw an exodus of 500,000 subscribers in the two years that Donald Trump no longer held office as President.
According to a Washington Times report the newspaper’s subscription base dropped from three million to around 2.5 million since January 2021, which is about a 20% decline.
The New York Times also reported in August that the Washington Post would lose money this year and its digital advertising revenue fell about $70 million, some 15% in the first half of 2021.
At the same time, the Post also announced that it was canceling its Sunday print edition and retrenching 10 employees.
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Many say that its not just poor economic conditions but also the loss of the headline-grabbing presidency of Donald Trump. In fact Trump himself said in 2017 that “Newspapers, television, all forms of media will tank if I’m not there, because without me, their ratings are going down the tubes.”
A reporter from Washington Post Paul Farhi said, “Barely two months into the post-Trump era, news outlets are indeed losing much of the audience and readership they gained during his chaotic presidency. In other words, journalism’s Trump bump may be giving way to a slump.”
Washington Post leads in losses
Other news companies have also seen layoffs this year including CNN, BuzzFeed, Gannett, Vice News and Vox Media. In fact in November CNN started laying off hundreds of workers in several areas of the company though the exact number is unclear, according to a report in the Guardian.
This included the retrenchment of senior staff as well as the company said that it was shifting its approach to hiring “paid contributors”.
CNN Chief executive officer Chris Licht said there were widespread concerns over the global economic outlook affecting long-term planning. In a memo to its employees Licht had said that layoffs “are necessary and will make us stronger and better positioned to place big bets going forward without fear of failure.”
This is the second round of layoffs for CNN in a year. The company also recently shelved its $100m streaming platform CNN+ just three weeks after it started, impacting 350 employees.