After billionaire and owner of The Washington Post Jeff Bezos blocked the newspaper’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, more than 200,000 people have canceled their digital subscription, meaning a loss of about 8% of the paper’s paid circulation.
According to NPR by midday Monday, more than 200,000 people had canceled their subscriptions, a number that is expected to grow these following days and to negatively impact the Post’s revenue overall.
On Friday, the endorsement was blocked, even when the whole editorial board had agreed to publish it. Following the event numerous outlets criticized the decision, and numerous journalists resigned from The Post.
NPR reported that David Hoffman, who just accepted a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing on Thursday –one day before Bezos’ decision– announced his resignation following the decision to block the endorsement.
“For decades, the Washington Post’s editorials have been a beacon of light, signaling hope to dissidents, political prisoners and the voiceless,” Hoffman wrote. “When victims of repression were harassed, exiled, imprisoned and murdered, we made sure the whole world knew the truth.
“I believe we face a very real threat of autocracy in the candidacy of Donald Trump,” Hoffman added in his letter to Editorial Page Editor David Shipley, which was obtained by NPR. “I find it untenable and unconscionable that we have lost our voice.”
The loss of journalists and subscriptions are expected to have a great impact on the Post, this is why Ellen Cushing, staff writer at The Atlantic encouraged people to cancel their Amazon Prime subscription instead of The Washington Post’s. She argued that Bezos made the decision, thus he should be the one to suffer the consequences.
“They pay for reporting and editing and fact-checking and the skilled labor of a vanishing class of people—people dedicated to the careful work of gathering the news, verifying the accuracy of information, and endeavoring to ensure a well-informed citizenry,” Cushing wrote. “The people who do that work are not the ones responsible for killing the Post’s endorsement. But they are the ones who are likely to be laid off, furloughed, bought out, or underpaid if company revenue dwindles as a result of subscription cancellations.”
Bezos, on the other hand, wrote in an op-ed that his decision was made to protect The Post credibility. He argued that Americans don’t trust the news anymore and that “presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election.” He also acknowledged the time was not ideal.
Since the announcement, news organizations have speculated that Bezos’ decision was made to protect his companies from a potential victory of Donald Trump, as the billionaire holds billionaire contracts with the federal government and Trump is known to be a vindictive person. When Trump was President, Amazon sued the government after alleging it had blocked a $10 billion cloud computing service after the Post criticized the former president.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders from Vermont had previously accused The Post of being biased against him following Sanders’ calls for Amazon to raise the minimum wage of its employees in 2018. After Bezos blocked the editorial, he again criticized the billionaire, saying this is “what Oligarchy is about.”
“Jeff Bezos, the 2nd wealthiest person in the world and the owner of the Washington Post, overrides his editorial board and refuses to endorse Kamala,” he wrote in X. “Clearly, he is afraid of antagonizing Trump and losing Amazon’s federal contracts. Pathetic.”
Meanwhile, Bezos defended his decision and denied being involved in more editorial decisions.
“I am not an ideal owner of The Post,” Bezos wrote. “While I do not and will not push my personal interest, I will also not allow this paper to stay on autopilot and fade into irrelevance — overtaken by unresearched podcasts and social media barbs — not without a fight. It’s too important. The stakes are too high.”