Hannah Rosen

Thank you for listening.

Seven years ago, around this time, the Washington Post ran an ad in the Super Bowl, Democracy Dies in Darkness.

It showed scenes of fires, explosions, floods, tanks, and journalists who've risked their lives for their profession, all with swelling music and a voiceover by Tom Hanks.

But then, just before the Super Bowl this year, the Post took a different turn.

And it was not another Super Bowl ad.

Good morning, everybody.

Thank you for joining us.

On Wednesday, Post staffers joined a Zoom call first thing in the morning.

Executive Editor Matt Murray spoke first.

the paper would be making massive cuts, closing the sports department.

Downsizing their metro desk and international desk.

Shrinking our international footprint.

One of their reporters based in Ukraine posted to X, I was just laid off by the Washington Post in the middle of a war zone.

We'll be closing the books section.

A suspension of their daily news show.

We'll be suspending the Post Reports podcast.

every single department would be impacted.

In less than 30 minutes, a historic journalistic institution cut its staff by almost a third after two previous rounds of punishing layoffs.

This was the home of the Watergate investigation.

Publisher of the Pentagon Papers.