Read the memos The Washington Post sent staff offering voluntary buyouts as the Jeff Bezos-owned paper restructures
The Washington Post is offering buyouts to select teams as part of an ongoing restructuring.
"Like the rest of our industry, we are adapting to changing habits and new technologies," executive editor Matt Murray wrote in a memo to staff on Tuesday. "To reach new audiences we must increase our staffing flexibility and expand in areas such as audience data and social video."
The voluntary buyouts will be offered to news employees with a tenure of at least 10 years at the Post, as well as all members of the video department, copy desks, and opinion section.
The time period to accept the buyouts will last roughly two months, ending in July. The announcement comes as Post employees are set to return to the office next week.
In his memo, Murray outlined changes to its video and copy teams.
On the video front, the company will place greater emphasis on "repeatable franchises" and "personality-driven formats for YouTube," while also embedding producers within the newsroom.
The Post will also restructure its copy teams to combine all editing operations into one desk.
In a separate memo, deputy opinion editor Mary Duenwald wrote that the opinion section is still looking for a new top editor and will soon "carry out in earnest" a plan announced in February to focus on personal liberties and free markets.
"Ideally, our new editor will be known before the time is up" to decide on taking a buyout, Duenwald wrote. She said the offer was "meant to give people security to make a clear-eyed decision on whether they want to be part of the new direction for Post Opinion."
The Jeff Bezos-owned newspaper sparked a backlash last year after opting not to endorse a candidate in the Presidential election for the first time in 40 years.
In January, more than 400 staffers urged Bezos to meet with company leaders, saying that integrity and transparency issues had sparked high-level departures.
In February, Bezos overhauled the opinion section and announced editor David Shipley would be stepping down. In March, Murray detailed further organizational changes, including new leadership roles and reorganized teams.
A Post spokesperson said the company has been going through a serious and significant transformation in recent months, and called the voluntary buyouts an inflection point for employees to ask themselves if they want to stay or go.
"The Washington Post is continuing its transformation to meet the needs of the industry, build a more sustainable future and reach audiences where they are," a spokesperson for the Post told BI in a statement.
Here's Murray's memo:
Dear All,
Today, we are announcing that The Washington Post is offering a Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) to news employees with 10 or more years' service at The Post, as well as to all members of the video department and to all members of the copy desk and sports copy desk.
The program is part of our ongoing newsroom transformation efforts aimed at reshaping and modernizing the newsroom for the current environment. Like the rest of our industry, we are adapting to changing habits and new technologies that are transforming news experiences. Even as we have begun creating new departments and welcoming new colleagues, to reach new audiences we must increase our staffing flexibility and expand in areas such as audience data and social video.
Our efforts are beginning to bear fruit. We are producing a more diverse news report with a great deal of superb and impactful journalism. I am confident we have exciting opportunities ahead of us. I also recognize, as I said at the all-staff meeting in March, that reimagining the newsroom, rethinking all we do and how we do it, is disruptive and even uncomfortable. The VSP presents an opportunity to colleagues who may want to pursue alternatives.
In that light the VSP is being offered to the entirety of the video team and to the copy desks. In the former case, we are restructuring and refocusing our video team to place much greater emphasis on developing repeatable franchises and more personality-driven formats for YouTube, other social media channels and off-platform more broadly, while embedding some video producers and facilitators in the core newsroom to help all our journalists and artists produce more video for our products.
On the editing front, we aim in the coming months to combine operations to one desk that will be part of the central news hub and ultimately will serve our digital products full time. The new print desk will also have a handful of crucial editing roles. These changes will enhance the speed and quality of our digital products and free most of us from constraints imposed by print requirements—while preserving the editing standards that undergird our focus on accuracy, clarity and credibility.
I want to underscore that the VSP is voluntary, and that we are fortunate we can offer enhanced packages for those who choose them.
Today's announcement kicks off an approximately two-month process that should culminate around the end of July. Eligible employees will receive a note with more details of the VSP later this morning from Wayne Connell. We will meet with the video team and editing desks later today and hold an information session for all others who are eligible. We also will schedule training and information sessions for managers in coming days.
In coming weeks, we will name a print editor and welcome Jason Anders, the new ME for the news hub, and with them share more detailed plans on the new editing desks. And I expect to hold another all-staff in June to update everyone on our progress. In the meantime, please feel free to bring your questions to Wayne and Liz Seymour.
With the VSP, we will no doubt see valued colleagues and friends decide to leave The Post. But as stewards of this great institution, we all must remain relentlessly focused on bringing engaging and relevant journalism to growing numbers of readers in the formats and ways they want it in 2025. That is an urgent and important task for us given the pace of technological change, the industry's evolving landscape and the ever-present need to produce and promote strong, rigorous and independent journalism.
Matt
Here's Mary Duenwald's memo:
Dear Dept of Opinions,
It's been a few months since we learned about changes ahead for Post Opinion. We're closer to the time when the section will begin to carry out in earnest the plan laid out in February to devote attention to personal liberties and free markets. So it's important to begin to transition to this time of reimagining Post Opinion.
Today, the company is announcing a voluntary separation program for Opinion. All eligible employees in our section will receive an email from Wayne Connell shortly laying out the details (contractors and freelancers will not).
Please know that all of us will have time to make up our minds about whether to accept this offer. The decision period will run until the end of July. Ideally, our new editor will be known before the time is up.
This voluntary offer is meant to give people security to make a clear-eyed decision on whether they want to be part of the new direction for Post Opinion.
I'm happy to discuss this, of course. At 11:30 today, Wayne Connell will meet with us to answer questions. Mike, Mili, Chiqui, Alyssa, Trey and Bina are read in on this, and all are also willing to listen.
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