We live in a profoundly tech-centric society. Software, especially machine learning and AI, combined with advanced manufacturing, has placed technology on every street corner, in schools, offices, factories, and farm fields. This technology, much of it born in Silicon Valley, sits on your wrist, is carried in your pocket, and is woven into the movies you watch and the music you listen to. It is certainly the force behind every Amazon package ordered, sorted, and delivered to your doorstep.
This technological revolution has turned its founders, executives, and managers into modern-day titans, with wealth and political influence reminiscent of the Gilded Age. Seven of the world’s ten richest people trace their fortunes directly to tech. According to Forbes, Amazon co-founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos ranks third, behind only Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and entrepreneur Elon Musk. Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer also populate this list.
Now, in a pivotal moment, the Bezos-owned Washington Post has gutted its coverage of these very figures and the tech industry at large. This is part of sweeping layoffs affecting over 300 people. The team covering tech, science, health, and business was cut by more than half, from 80 to 33 people. The tech desk alone lost 14 staffers, and its San Francisco bureau is now a shell.
Among those affected are reporters covering Amazon, artificial intelligence, internet culture, and investigations. The newspaper also laid off staff covering the media industry, which had previously reported on Bezos’ ownership of their own paper. The Post eliminated its entire sports bureau and nearly annihilated its foreign reporting teams, including its Middle East desk and reporters covering Ukraine, Russia, Iran, and Turkey. It closed its Books section, decimated coverage of local culture and the Washington, D.C. metro area, and laid off all reporters and editors covering national race and ethnicity issues.
Coverage of technology is not more important than social, economic, and geopolitical issues. But never before have the people exerting outsized influence on the world’s geopolitics and economy also been so directly responsible for stemming the global flow of information about it.
Yet, even as the world centers on tech and ties its fate to the GDP growth or retreat of tech superpowers, the industry’s most powerful executives are asking the public to look elsewhere.
The Post’s executive editor, Matt Murray, framed the layoffs as a reboot aimed at reaching readers and eventually achieving profitability. He stated that the move was about positioning the paper to become more essential in a crowded and competitive media landscape.
It is no secret The Post has lost money and subscribers in recent years, in some cases due to policies crafted or backed by Bezos. For instance, his directive to end presidential endorsements by the editorial board, which involved axing a drafted piece backing Kamala Harris, reportedly led to hundreds of thousands of canceled subscriptions. The paper reportedly suffered $100 million in losses in 2024, partly due to these cancellations. Its web traffic has also declined sharply.
The layoffs at The Post do not exist in a vacuum. The entire media industry has been plagued by a fragmented audience and changes to digital platforms that divert readers away from news outlets.
However, the size, scope, and location of these cuts merit scrutiny, especially considering shifts in media ownership over the past 15 years. Bezos’ acquisition of the Post in 2013 for $250 million was part of a trend where billionaires, many from tech, purchased beleaguered media organizations. Soon after, Laurene Powell Jobs bought The Atlantic, Salesforce’s Marc Benioff bought Time, and Patrick Soon-Shiong acquired the Los Angeles Times.
Bezos, like some of these other owners, has moved closer to political power. His spaceflight company, Blue Origin, relies on federal contracts, and Amazon has faced increased government scrutiny.
Reportedly, Post CEO Will Lewis was not present to oversee the staff cuts, with the editor noting he had other things to tend to. Nor was Bezos. As his newspaper prepared to cut one-third of its staff, Bezos spent the day with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in Florida, touring Blue Origin’s facilities. Less than 48 hours later, The Washington Post laid off the journalist who had reported on Blue Origin’s own layoffs the previous year.
The darkness, it seems, is creeping in.