Jeff Bezos confronted by Washington Post employee over his newspaper’s pending layoffs

A Washington Submit staffer confronted billionaire proprietor Jeff Bezos face-to-face in regards to the newspaper’s pending layoffs when he visited its places of work on Thursday, Fox Information Digital has realized.

Bezos’ presence on the paper this week has precipitated a buzz on the outlet as job cuts are anticipated to be introduced within the coming days; founding father of Amazon and one of many world’s richest males, Bezos’ appearances include safety within the Submit’s halls. An insider shared a dialog from the Washington Submit Guild’s Slack channel, the place the unnamed staffer bumped into Bezos and referred to as out writer Fred Ryan for not answering questions in regards to the layoffs.

The worker, a union member, requested Bezos why the newspaper wasn’t at the least providing buyouts.

He instructed the worker he was there to pay attention and never take questions, including, “I am dedicated. Consider me, I am dedicated.” 

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Bezos was within the places of work to go to with senior management and sit in on an editorial assembly, though he has stated he doesn’t weigh in on decision-making round content material. Bezos met with some part editors and government editor Sally Buzbee this week, along with the paper’s embattled writer.

The Washington Submit is coming off a troublesome yr, with stories of subscriber losses, distinguished departures of key journalists, a social media fiasco ending in reporter Felicia Sonmez’s firing and now pending layoffs amid widespread job losses within the media business.

Ryan angered Guild members final month when he introduced first-quarter 2023 job cuts at a gathering however then would not take questions, often a aspect of so-called firm “city halls.” Ryan stated he did not need to have a “grievance session” with the union, including he anticipated it could be single-digit share job losses, which may have an effect on as many as 100 staff.

“The Washington Submit is evolving and reworking to place our enterprise in one of the best place for future progress. We’re planning to direct our assets and put money into protection, merchandise, and other people in service of offering excessive worth to our subscribers and new audiences. Because of this, various positions can be eradicated. We anticipate it is going to be a single-digit share of our worker base, and we are going to finalize these plans over the approaching weeks. This won’t be a internet discount in Submit headcount. Lately, now we have made among the largest investments in The Submit’s historical past and 2023 can be one other yr of continued funding,” a spokeswoman instructed Fox Information Digital on the time.

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The Washington Submit insider criticized Ryan’s dealing with of the scenario to Fox Information Digital, saying the announcement and subsequent refusal to reply reporters’ questions on it merely made issues worse.

“Why announce in mid-December that some imprecise variety of layoffs was coming at some undetermined level in the course of the first quarter of the following yr?” they requested. “After which not reply a single query about it from a room filled with reporters. What’s the purpose apart from to induce anxiousness in your workforce? Nearly each dialog I’ve had within the newsroom over the previous month has been about what’s about to go down. And nobody actually is aware of something.”

The Washington Submit Guild instructed Fox Information Digital it hoped Bezos was true to his phrase when he stated he would pay attention.

“The Submit Guild is the strongest it has been in a long time, with practically 700 members throughout the corporate and a file variety of sign-ups in latest weeks,” the Guild stated in a press release. “Our members have considerate questions and legitimate issues that our writer and different firm representatives have refused for months to reply, together with in regards to the rationale for layoffs and plans for a way they will be carried out. Mr. Bezos stated he was attending Submit conferences to pay attention; we hope he has heard our members’ issues.”

Bezos purchased the Washington Submit in 2013. Resulting from his immense wealth and affect, his possession of one of the extensively learn American newspapers has come below criticism at occasions. His estimated internet value is over $100 billion, though he has been supplanted because the world’s richest man by Elon Musk.

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The Washington Submit did not return a request for remark.

This text was up to date with a remark from the Washington Submit Guild.