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The Washington Post is hemorrhaging subscribers after its editorial page announced last week that it would no longer make presidential endorsements ― a decision critics say amounts to bending the knee to Donald Trump.
Two sources with knowledge of the Post’s subscription base told NPR that more than 200,000 people had canceled their digital subscriptions by midday Monday, with more still coming in.
That’s equivalent to roughly 8% of the paper’s paid circulation, which, including print, sits at around 2.5 million subscribers.
A spokesperson for The Washington Post declined to comment, noting that the paper is a private company with no obligation to share its subscriber numbers.
A handful of staffers have resigned in protest, including editor-at-large Robert Kagan. Molly Roberts and David Hoffman, both members of the paper’s editorial board, have resigned from their positions on the board but will remain at the paper.
Roberts said Monday she was resigning “because the imperative to endorse Kamala Harris over Donald Trump is about as morally clear as it gets.”
“Worse, our silence is exactly what Donald Trump wants: for the media, for us, to keep quiet.”
Publisher and CEO William Lewis cast the decision last week to block a forthcoming endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as a return to the paper’s “roots.”
But The Washington Post Guild quickly dispelled that spin.
“According to our own reporters and Guild members, an endorsement for Harris was already drafted, and the decision to not publish was made by The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos,” the Guild said in a statement.
Bezos, the billionaire CEO of Amazon, holds contracts with the government worth billions. Presumably Bezos is concerned about endangering those contracts should Trump win.
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The Guild struck a conciliatory tone while urging readers not to cancel their subscriptions.
“We know today’s news is troubling and some of you want to cancel your subscriptions,” they wrote. “Please remember the hardworking employees of The Washington Post – our Guild members – had nothing to do with this decision. We are the ones who make The Post and we hope you stick with us.”
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