After layoffs at Amazon, another company owned by Jeff Bezos announces job cuts

Another Jeff Bezos-owned company is set to lay off employees. The Washington Post, a US-based publication, has announced job cuts. The Post will be cutting jobs in the early part of next year, according to Publisher Fred Ryan. During a company meeting, Ryan stated that the cuts would likely be a "single-digit percentage" of the newspaper's 2,500 employees, but did not provide any further specifics.

Ryan stated that new jobs would be created to offset the positions being eliminated and that the Post's total headcount would not be reduced. He also claimed that the job cuts "in no way signals that we are scaling back our ambitions," but rather that the Post "cannot keep investing resources in initiatives that do not meet our customers' needs."

The announcement of the layoffs comes just weeks after the Post announced it would be ending its weekly magazine and laying off 11 newsroom employees, citing "economic headwinds" as a factor. A report by Washington Post claims that the magazine's final issue will be published on December 25th. The Post also eliminated the job of Pulitzer Prize-winning dance critic Sarah L. Kaufman, who was not offered a new role at the newspaper.

The company attributed the layoffs to the difficult economic environment for companies reliant on advertising, and acknowledged that "for those people whose positions will be eliminated, this will be a difficult time."

Also read: Amazon denies firing employees in India; next Labour Ministry hearing in 2-3 weeks

The announcement, during the meeting, was countered with a lot of questions by the company's employees. However, Ryan left the meeting before answering any of them, according to the Washington Post report.

The Washington Post Guild also released a statement against Ryan's refusal to take questions at the meeting. The Guild stated that this behavior was "unacceptable from any leader, but especially the leader of a news organization whose core values include transparency and accountability." The Guild claimed that "there is no justification for The Post to lay off employees in a period of record growth and hiring."

Today, we came into WaPo’s so-called town hall with questions about recent layoffs and the future of the company.

Our publisher dropped a bombshell on us by announcing more layoffs and then walking out, refusing to answer any of our questions. pic.twitter.com/ajNZsZKOBr

— Washington Post Guild (@PostGuild) December 14, 2022

Amazon announced layoffs in its devices department last month. Around 10,000 employees were removed from the company. These employees belonged to both technical and non-technical roles. The laid off employees constitute 3 per cent of the company's workforce. 

Also read: 'No Jobs November': Facebook, Amazon, Twitter firings add to near 38,000 layoffs globally