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Post Apocalyptic

A brutally awkward town hall amplified long-simmering anxieties within The Washington Post, which is suffering from its own leadership blues and deja vu anxiety about receding from relevance—again.

Fred Ryan
Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/ Getty Images
Dylan Byers
December 15, 2022

On Wednesday, the dapper and hyper-well-connected Washington Post C.E.O. Fred Ryan stood up before the company’s thousand-plus staff and announced that the organization would be conducting layoffs in the first quarter of next year, resulting in a less-than-10 percent reduction of the workforce. Since Trump left office, and Marty Baron retired from his role as executive editor, the Post has been churning subscribers and losing ad revenue. During the town hall, Ryan told staff that ad revenue was at “recession levels.”