Derek Thompson

The owner, Jeff Bezos, is nowhere to be seen.

I mean, I really looked hard at what is a larger layoff in modern American newspaper history, right?

One third to one half of the Washington Post.

Very difficult to find, which means you're in this moment where one of the richest newspaper owners in American history is overseeing one of the largest newspaper layoffs in modern American history.

I mean, how calamitous does this seem to you?

Let's go back to 2006, 20 years ago.

You're a national political reporter at the Washington Post.

And you have this idea.

You have this idea that there's an unfed need among the American news consumer and the American political news consumer in particular.

What did you want to build that you thought the Post wasn't prepared to offer newsreaders at the time?

So you leave the Washington Post.

Mike Allen leaves.

Time.

You get Maggie Haberman.

You get Ben Smith.

You pull them on board.

Just this incredible collection of star journalists.

You've written that one of the consequences of Politico and its success—

is the rise of political porn.

This by-the-hour, by-the-minute obsession with political coverage.