Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey there, it's Shamita here. I just wanted to let you know that I am stepping away from the mic for a little while because I'm about to have a baby for the second time. So this show is going to keep coming your way with great guest hosts in my absence, and I'll be listening at home just like you. Thank you to all of my great colleagues here for everything on with the show. Good morning.
The Washington Post is in turmoil as major cuts look set to transform the publication. Semaphore's media editor delves into how it happened.
The modern media business is really, really hard. But a lot of it was that the Post decided and owner Jeff Bezos decided that it wanted its audience to be different than what it is now.
why traditional U.S. allies are leaning away from Trump and toward China, and what to watch for at the Super Bowl on the field and on the halftime stage. It's Friday, February 6th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
It is a newspaper with a historic reputation for revealing how government works from within, informing a generation of readers, and infuriating the world's most powerful people by holding them to account.
I want it clearly understood that from now on, no reporter from the Washington Post is ever to be in the White House. Is that clear?
But 50 years after Richard Nixon went to war with the Post and lost, we learned that the paper is facing a very uncertain future.
The Post is associated with some of the most consequential journalism in the history of this country. And these cuts are some of the most dramatic cuts to a news organization in recent memory.
Max Taney is the media editor at Semaphore, and he told us what's been going on.
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Chapter 2: What major changes are happening at the Washington Post?
They decided to eliminate their books section. They decided to cut a large number of video staffers. And that's just on the editorial side. They also got rid of a number of people on the product and technology side as well. You'll hear less about those because they're not as visible.
Tani says the paper had been hemorrhaging cash, potentially as much as $100 million a year. And in their note to staff, executive editor Matt Murray said the company was, quote, too rooted in a different era and would need to reinvent their business model.
Much of the coverage since the announcement has been focused on its owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who bought the paper in 2013 as it was struggling financially.
Bezos came in and promised to help the paper expand and grow and become this digital media behemoth. And it did for a while. It was really helped by Trump's election and the interest in that story and The Post's fantastic coverage of politics and Washington and the federal government.
And in those early years, Bezos resisted interfering editorially, leaving the journalists to do their work. But with Trump's departure in 2020, the Post, like everyone else, needed to find new ways to engage audiences.
It didn't diversify its business effectively enough in the way that competitors such as The New York Times did. The Post was really reliant, overly reliant on politics and Trump. And so once they started to see that drop off, it was already a little bit late.
In the 2024 race, Bezos' decision to break with tradition and prevent the paper's editors from endorsing a candidate angered many of its traditional readers, as did his overhaul of the opinion desk that would exclude views that opposed, quote, personal liberties and free markets. Taken together, those moves cost the Post more than 375,000 subscribers, according to NPR.
That's roughly 15 percent of its total paid circulation at the time. as critics accused Bezos of bowing to the Trump administration. Tani told us that Bezos wanted to appeal to swing voters and people more sympathetic to Trump's agenda.
I think that it definitely decided to find a different audience, which is really, really hard to do in 2026, especially when online audiences, particularly for legacy publications, already most likely have a particular view of what that publication is and what it stands for.
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Chapter 3: What financial challenges is the Washington Post currently facing?
Even an exact score. I love it. Love to see it. Shocker Simon, thanks so much for your time. Thanks so much for having me. For the latest news and live updates from the game, make sure to follow along in the Apple News app. And if you're listening in the app right now, stick around to hear this week's episode of Apple News in Conversation.
It's about the Super Bowl halftime performer this year, Bad Bunny, who's coming off a huge Grammy win for Album of the Year. I spoke with LA Times editor Susie Exposito, who has met and interviewed Bad Bunny several times. We talked about his childhood in Puerto Rico, his evolution as an artist, and his global appeal.
Bad Bunny's story is a very Puerto Rican story, but it's also a story of the American dream. You know, he went from working at a grocery store to becoming like the biggest singer-MC superstar in the world.
If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News In Conversation to hear more or come back to the Apple News Today feed tomorrow. All new episodes of In Conversation will be available there on Saturdays, too. Enjoy your weekend. I am heading off on parental leave, but the show will be back with the news on Monday.