The Washington Post is expected to announce mass layoffs Wednesday morning, dealing a significant blow to a storied media company and a newsroom that has reached a breaking point.

----Well, this is definitely the killing blow to the Washington Bezos----

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    “Thank you for attending the call. Today we will be discussing various methods for sucking billionaire’s cocks. Please pay close attention. Your livelihood depends on it.”

    So weird to see all our old, respected media bend over and get ass rammed into meaninglessness. Well, whatever. So long WP.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    15 hours ago

    Should have never been sold to Bezos in the first place, for this reason.

    Bezos has money coming out his fucking ass, but not enough to keep a newspaper running? Bullshit, this kind of killing blow is a choice, and that choice has a purpose, and that purpose is to remove access to information from the citizenry.

    • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de
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      14 hours ago

      Simple enough to set up a perpetual purpose trust or something appropriate, with a couple billion in funding, to ensure that the paper continues to do its job. But instead, he’s got to get his sticky fingers all over it.

    • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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      13 hours ago

      That doesn’t make sense. He bought it so he could control the narrative. You can’t do that if you kill the newspaper

      • 4am@lemmy.zip
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        12 hours ago

        If the staff won’t cooperate in controlling the narrative to your liking, you just remove the staff. If that kills the paper, so what? It wasn’t doing what you wanted anyway.

        I hope this opens some eyes to see why billionaires have too much control.

        If we are going to have to have capital (we don’t, but I don’t think Americans are entirely ready to hear that yet), capitalists shouldn’t be allowed into positions that allow this type of thing to go on unchecked.

        • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          There’s a reason why most journalists are hated by elites but people like bari weiss are adored by then.

          • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
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            10 hours ago

            “Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.”

            Orwell understood that power and authoritarianism were the issue, not so much the supposed ideology underpinning the powerful.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    The Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, has spoken privately about finding a path to profitability for the Post by focusing the paper’s investment on politics and a few other key areas, while cutting back in areas like sports and foreign affairs.

    The richest man in the world owns them. Who the fuck do they think they’re fooling?

      • maccentric@sh.itjust.works
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        10 hours ago

        I’ve noticed many websites are throwing errors after scrolling a bit in reader mode. I’ve been dodging it by printing the page to pdf before it has a chance.

        • humanamerican@lemmy.zip
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          9 hours ago

          Smart trick. Also, then you have an archive of the article should the site decide to revise history at a later date.

  • Talaraine@fedia.io
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    13 hours ago

    Honestly, we need to get better about talented individuals in these industries having at least an idea floating around in their minds to rebuild a new ‘insert company’ when they pull this shit. Like, have it in your backpocket and be ready to act. The only thing that can stop this shit is to use those good reputations to create competitive products.

    • treadful@lemmy.zip
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      8 hours ago

      The problem with that is that these talented individuals don’t have the capital to create those competitors.

  • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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    15 hours ago

    Did Trump’s people demand that he kill it? Maybe the Melania movie bribe wasn’t enough, or maybe Trump’s angry that people hate the movie and are making fun of it.