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Read the memos The Washington Post sent staff offering voluntary buyouts as the Jeff Bezos-owned paper restructures

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1 year ago

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Read the memos The Washington Post sent staff offering voluntary buyouts as the Jeff Bezos-owned paper restructures


The Washington Post is offering buyouts to select teams as part of an ongoing restructuring.

“Like the rest of our industry, we are adapting to changing habits and new technologies,” executive editor Matt Murray wrote in a memo to staff on Tuesday. “To reach new audiences we must increase our staffing flexibility and expand in areas such as audience data and social video.”

The voluntary buyouts will be offered to news employees with a tenure of at least 10 years at the Post, as well as all members of the video department, copy desks, and opinion section.

The time period to accept the buyouts will last roughly two months, ending in July. The announcement comes as Post employees are set to return to the office next week.

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In his memo, Murray outlined changes to its video and copy teams.

On the video front, the company will place greater emphasis on “repeatable franchises” and “personality-driven formats for YouTube,” while also embedding producers within the newsroom.

The Post will also restructure its copy teams to combine all editing operations into one desk.

In a separate memo, deputy opinion editor Mary Duenwald wrote that the opinion section is still looking for a new top editor and will soon “carry out in earnest” a plan announced in February to focus on personal liberties and free markets.

“Ideally, our new editor will be known before the time is up” to decide on taking a buyout, Duenwald wrote. She said the offer was “meant to give people security to make a clear-eyed decision on whether they want to be part of the new direction for Post Opinion.”

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The Jeff Bezos-owned newspaper sparked a backlash last year after opting not to endorse a candidate in the Presidential election for the first time in 40 years.

In January, more than 400 staffers urged Bezos to meet with company leaders, saying that integrity and transparency issues had sparked high-level departures.

In February, Bezos overhauled the opinion section and announced editor David Shipley would be stepping down. In March, Murray detailed further organizational changes, including new leadership roles and reorganized teams.

A Post spokesperson said the company has been going through a serious and significant transformation in recent months, and called the voluntary buyouts an inflection point for employees to ask themselves if they want to stay or go.

“The Washington Post is continuing its transformation to meet the needs of the industry, build a more sustainable future and reach audiences where they are,” a spokesperson for the Post told BI in a statement.

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Here’s Murray’s memo:

Dear All,
Today, we are announcing that The Washington Post is offering a Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) to news employees with 10 or more years’ service at The Post, as well as to all members of the video department and to all members of the copy desk and sports copy desk.
The program is part of our ongoing newsroom transformation efforts aimed at reshaping and modernizing the newsroom for the current environment. Like the rest of our industry, we are adapting to changing habits and new technologies that are transforming news experiences. Even as we have begun creating new departments and welcoming new colleagues, to reach new audiences we must increase our staffing flexibility and expand in areas such as audience data and social video.
Our efforts are beginning to bear fruit. We are producing a more diverse news report with a great deal of superb and impactful journalism. I am confident we have exciting opportunities ahead of us. I also recognize, as I said at the all-staff meeting in March, that reimagining the newsroom, rethinking all we do and how we do it, is disruptive and even uncomfortable. The VSP presents an opportunity to colleagues who may want to pursue alternatives.
In that light the VSP is being offered to the entirety of the video team and to the copy desks. In the former case, we are restructuring and refocusing our video team to place much greater emphasis on developing repeatable franchises and more personality-driven formats for YouTube, other social media channels and off-platform more broadly, while embedding some video producers and facilitators in the core newsroom to help all our journalists and artists produce more video for our products.
On the editing front, we aim in the coming months to combine operations to one desk that will be part of the central news hub and ultimately will serve our digital products full time. The new print desk will also have a handful of crucial editing roles. These changes will enhance the speed and quality of our digital products and free most of us from constraints imposed by print requirements—while preserving the editing standards that undergird our focus on accuracy, clarity and credibility.
I want to underscore that the VSP is voluntary, and that we are fortunate we can offer enhanced packages for those who choose them.
Today’s announcement kicks off an approximately two-month process that should culminate around the end of July. Eligible employees will receive a note with more details of the VSP later this morning from Wayne Connell. We will meet with the video team and editing desks later today and hold an information session for all others who are eligible. We also will schedule training and information sessions for managers in coming days.
In coming weeks, we will name a print editor and welcome Jason Anders, the new ME for the news hub, and with them share more detailed plans on the new editing desks. And I expect to hold another all-staff in June to update everyone on our progress. In the meantime, please feel free to bring your questions to Wayne and Liz Seymour.
With the VSP, we will no doubt see valued colleagues and friends decide to leave The Post. But as stewards of this great institution, we all must remain relentlessly focused on bringing engaging and relevant journalism to growing numbers of readers in the formats and ways they want it in 2025. That is an urgent and important task for us given the pace of technological change, the industry’s evolving landscape and the ever-present need to produce and promote strong, rigorous and independent journalism.
Matt

Here’s Mary Duenwald’s memo:

Dear Dept of Opinions,
It’s been a few months since we learned about changes ahead for Post Opinion. We’re closer to the time when the section will begin to carry out in earnest the plan laid out in February to devote attention to personal liberties and free markets. So it’s important to begin to transition to this time of reimagining Post Opinion.
Today, the company is announcing a voluntary separation program for Opinion. All eligible employees in our section will receive an email from Wayne Connell shortly laying out the details (contractors and freelancers will not).
Please know that all of us will have time to make up our minds about whether to accept this offer. The decision period will run until the end of July. Ideally, our new editor will be known before the time is up.
This voluntary offer is meant to give people security to make a clear-eyed decision on whether they want to be part of the new direction for Post Opinion.
I’m happy to discuss this, of course. At 11:30 today, Wayne Connell will meet with us to answer questions. Mike, Mili, Chiqui, Alyssa, Trey and Bina are read in on this, and all are also willing to listen.
Mary





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Washington

Inside Woodlawn Cemetery’s mission to preserve history

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14 hours ago

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June 24, 2026

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Inside Woodlawn Cemetery’s mission to preserve history


The iron gate to Woodlawn Cemetery is almost always locked shut, but Toni White-Richardson was more than happy to let News4 inside.

As president of the Woodlawn Cemetery Perpetual Care Association, she was excited to talk about what makes this resting place so special.

“It is major D.C. history, first. Then it’s also major Black history, second,” White-Richardson said.

More than 30,000 people, mostly African Americans, are buried among the 22 acres of Woodlawn Cemetery, which opened in Southeast D.C. in 1895. And like so many cemeteries that date back to the 1800s, particularly African American cemeteries, this one has fallen into disrepair, is overgrown and has headstones tumbled over, like those of Wilhelmina and her husband James, and Eliza Spencer, a mother who died in 1887.

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“Let me do a very upfront disclaimer,” White-Richardson said. “We have no idea where these stones go. And when we looked at the grid, it became even clear as mud, it became less clear as to where these stones should really go. Unfortunately, when we look back, we can tell there was a plan, but we could see we never got totally completed. Even back then, there are no markers saying this is Section H or this is Section G or this is 102 and this is, none of that.”

One of the most notable Washingtonians laid to rest here is John Mercer Langston, Virginia’s first Black congressman.

“Langston University came one year because they had a grand reunion in D.C., and we arranged for them to come to see […] John Mercer Langston, the university that was named after this man,” White-Richardson said.

And Blance Bruce, the first Black U.S. senator to serve a full term and register of the treasury, is also buried in the cemetery.

“He’s the signature on our dollar bill, you know, back in the late 1800s,” White-Richardson said. “So, oh, it’s history. It’s capital letters. No getting around it.”

Woodlawn is also the resting place of several of the original founders of two of the country’s most prominent Black sororities, Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta. Both organizations volunteer to help with clean ups.

The Perpetual Care Association recently received a grant from the D.C. Office of Planning to help with upkeep of the grounds and preserving the history here.

“These are important individuals who’ve made contributions to the District a century ago, but today still their history and their stories reverberate and really influence the trajectory of our city,” said Anita Cozart, director of the D.C. Office of Planning.

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The cemetery tucked away off Benning Road is only open to the public five days a year, but groups can request tours anytime. The next chance to visit Woodlawn when it will be open to the public is Labor Day.

They’re always looking for volunteers and donors to help with the upkeep of this sacred ground.



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Washington

Parsing Trump’s claims about Washington’s reflecting pool

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1 day ago

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June 24, 2026

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Parsing Trump’s claims about Washington’s reflecting pool


US President Donald Trump wanted to mark the US’s 250th birthday with a renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on the National Mall.

The makeover, including a new coat of “American Flag blue,” cost taxpayers $16 million (€14.1 million).

But the water is covered in green algae. The blue paint is already peeling. Trump has blamed vandals, while his critics question the project’s transparency and cost.

DW’s Brent Goff and Washington correspondent Janelle Dumalaon unpack the whole fiasco.

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Social media reacts to former BYU star AJ Dybantsa going No. 1 in 2026 NBA draft

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1 day ago

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June 23, 2026

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Social media reacts to former BYU star AJ Dybantsa going No. 1 in 2026 NBA draft


Former BYU basketball star AJ Dybantsa fulfilled his dream of going No. 1 overall in the 2026 NBA draft.

The Washington Wizards selected Dybantsa with the first pick.

Immediately after the pick, reactions poured in on social media about the Wizards drafting Dybantsa.

Social media reactions to the Washington Wizards selecting BYU star AJ Dybantsa

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSL and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast daily on KSL Sports YouTube and KSL NewsRadio (SUBSCRIBE). Harper also co-hosts Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL NewsRadio.

Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU athletics in the Big 12 Conference on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram: @Mitch_Harper.

Want more coverage of BYU sports? Take us with you wherever you go.

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