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The Washington Post is laying off more than 50 employees in its standalone software unit in a bid to help satisfy billionaire owner Jeff Bezos‘ desire to return the storied news outlet to profitability.
The layoffs will eliminate about one-quarter of the Arc XP workforce, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The move came after voluntary buyouts reduced the Post’s staff by 240, about 10% of the total head count.
Arc XP began as an in-house publishing tool but has expanded in recent years to service companies including Reuters, Gray Media and France’s Le Parisien, as well as the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and energy company BP, the Journal said.
“To continue this leadership amidst a new wave of change within our industry requires us to act with urgency and think differently,” Arc XP president Matt Monahan wrote in an internal memo obtained by the Journal.
Monahan said the job cuts “will help us align to a plan for the future that is both ambitious and achievable.”
The move marked the latest effort to turn around the Post, which lost $77 million in 2023. After surging while former President Donald Trump was in office, the Wapo has seen its digital audience fall by about 50% since 2020.
Late last year, Bezos — who founded e-commerce giant Amazon and has a fortune estimated by Forbes at $211 billion, making him the world’s second-richest person — hired British media executive William Lewis as the Post’s publisher and CEO.
Lewis replaced Fred Ryan, who resigned after nine years to run the newly formed Center on Public Civility at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.
The Post — which famously exposed the Watergate scandal that forced President Richard Nixon from office in 1974 — won 13 Pulitzer Prizes under Ryan, who also oversaw a series of layoffs and cutbacks that included scrapping its Sunday magazine.
