The emblematic newspaper The Washington Post It is experiencing an internal earthquake due to the decision of its owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos, not to support the presidential candidacy of Democrat Kamala Harris, which has led to two resignations and massive calls to cancel subscriptions to the newspaper.
In fact, more than 200,000 people had canceled their digital subscriptions to the Washington Post as of noon on Monday, following the newspaper’s decision to block the Democratic vice president’s endorsement for the presidency, reported NPR.
While not all cancellations are effective immediately, NPR reports that even so, the figure represents about 8% of the newspaper’s paid circulation of 2.5 million subscribers, which includes print.
The opinion section of the newspaper had already prepared the text supporting the Democratic candidate against Donald Trump. The Post has been asking for votes for one of the two candidates since 1976, when it voted in favor of Jimmy Carter. Before, I did not do so, with the exception of 1952. In the last two elections I supported the Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, against Donald Trump. The company’s CEO presented the decision as a return to the roots, but that argument has not convinced either the members of the opinion section, the news editorial staff, or the former glories of the newspaper.
While not all cancellations are effective immediately, NPR reports that even so, the figure represents about 8% of the newspaper’s paid circulation of 2.5 million subscribers, which includes print.
As reported The Countrythe decision has led to resignations within the editorial board, which until now has 10 members, including the opinion director, David Shipley. Three of its members, David E. Hoffman, Molly Roberts and Mili Mitra, announced Monday that they were leaving, although they will remain at the newspaper. “It is extremely difficult for us because we built this institution,” Hoffman said in an interview with the outlet to explain his decision to resign. “But we cannot give up our American democracy or The Post,” added the veteran journalist, who has been with the newspaper for 42 years and who just last Thursday had received a Pulitzer Prize for his columns on autocracy. “I believe we face a very real threat of autocracy in Donald Trump’s candidacy,” he wrote in his resignation letter.
The first to resign due to this decision was editor Robert Kagan, who called the change of position a “premature capitulation” to Trump. Columnist Michele Norris also announced her resignation, calling the change in position a “terrible mistake” and an “insult to the newspaper’s standards.” Another 18 columnists signed a column in which they expressed their disagreement, stating that the announcement “represents an abandonment of the newspaper’s convictions.”
Loss of subscriptions of that magnitude would be a blow to a media outlet already facing financial difficulties. The Post had more than 2.5 million subscribers last year, most of them digital, ranking third in circulation, behind The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
A spokeswoman for the newspaper, Olivia Peterson, declined to comment on the report when contacted. The Associated Press.
William Lewis, in office since last January, denied that Bezos, founder of Amazon and owner of the Post since 2013, had something to do with the newspaper’s new position. As he justified, the newspaper’s objective is to give a greater image of independence and return to its origins, when the Post did not endorse candidates.
Even so, the newspaper has investigated irregularities and controversies related to Trump and his entourage for years, maintaining a very critical stance towards the Republican’s rhetoric and his refusal to accept defeat in the 2020 elections.
During the Trump presidency, Amazon lost a multimillion-dollar contract with the Pentagon and sued the former president for having exerted “undue pressure” to harm Bezos. Critics of the newspaper’s decision maintain that the billionaire seeks to avoid confrontations in case Trump assumes a second term.
Loss of subscriptions of that magnitude would be a blow to a media outlet already facing financial difficulties. The Post had more than 2.5 million subscribers last year, most of them digital, ranking third in circulation, behind The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Even so, it is not the only media in the controversy for not giving its public support to the Democratic candidate.
While the newspaper Los Angeles Times faces an editorial exodus over its owner’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate, his daughter is defending the decision.
Politician and activist Nika Soon-Shiong expressed support for Father Patrick Soon-Shiong’s recent refusal to endorse Kamala Harris, who she claims is “overseeing a war on children” in Gaza amid the conflict in Middle East. East.
“There is a lot of controversy and confusion about the LAT’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate. I trust the criteria of the Editorial Board. For me, genocide is the dividing line,” he noted on Thursday in a thread on X.
