To declare that we live in a tech-centric society is to understate it.
Software, especially machine learning and AI, coupled with advanced manufacturing has brought technology to street corners, schools, offices, factories, and even farm fields. This technology, much of it created in Silicon Valley, sits on your wrist, is carried in your pocket, integrated into the movies you watch, and maybe even the music you listen to. And that’s certainly how that Amazon package was ordered, organized, and delivered to your door.
It transformed its founders, managers, and middle managers into king-like aristocracy, their wealth and political influence characteristic of the Cool Age. Seven out of 10 of the world’s richest people can tie their wealth directly to technology. Amazon founder, chairman, and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is third, behind Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and serial entrepreneur Elon Musk, according to Forbes, which tracks wealth and the people who own it. Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer round out the list.
And at this moment, the Washington Post owned by Bezos has ended its coverage and the technology industry as part of a full set of layoffs that affected more than 300 people. The technology, science, health and business team has been cut by more than half from 80 people to 33, according to tech reporter Drew Harwell. The technical desk alone cut 14 people. Its San Francisco office is a shell.
Among those affected are journalists covering Amazon, artificial intelligence, internet culture, and investigations. The newspaper also laid off staff reporting on the news industry (which had previously reported on Bezos’ ownership of their paper).
The Post cut its entire sports agency and nearly eliminated its foreign reporting teams, including its Middle East desk, and its reporters and editors covering Ukraine, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and others. It closed its Books section, ended coverage of cultural affairs and the DC Metro area, and laid off all reporters and editors covering issues of race and ethnicity nationally.
Technological inclusion is less important than social, economic, and political issues. But never before have the people who wield so much influence over the country’s politics and economy also been so directly responsible for stopping the flow of information around the world about it.
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The world is focused on technology and is tied to the GDP growth – or regression – of the superpowers. Tech’s most powerful executives are asking the public to put their attention elsewhere.
Post editor-in-chief Matt Murray hailed the layoffs as a reboot of sorts aimed at reaching readers and ultimately becoming profitable, according to the New York Times, which included his comments to the staff.
“If anything, today is about positioning ourselves to be more important to people’s lives in what is becoming a crowded, competitive, and complex environment,” he reportedly said during a Zoom meeting with employees.
It’s no secret The Post has lost money and subscribers in recent years, in some cases because of policies designed or supported by Bezos. For example, his order to end the president’s endorsement by The Post’s editorial board, which included a fabricated piece supporting Kamala Harris, reportedly led to “thousands of thousands” of canceled subscriptions, per the NYT. It reportedly lost $100 million by 2024, partly due to cancellations.
Its web traffic is also down. Semafor reported that daily visits fell to around 3 million in mid-2024, from 22.5 million in January 2021.
The Post cut its workforce from 1,000 to less than 800 last spring, with CEO Will Lewis calling for a loss of $100 million since last year.
The layoffs at The Post, of course, don’t happen in a vacuum. (The news industry, not just legacy players, has been hit by a diverse audience and changes in Google’s search algorithms that have steered readers away from news outlets and its AI-generated answers.)
The size, scope, and location of those hatchet strikes are worthy of consideration, however. Especially considering the change in media ownership over the past 15 years.
Bezos’ acquisition of the Post in 2013 for $250 million was met with a mixture of skepticism and optimism, by journalists weary of mergers, layoffs and the growing pains of moving from a print-only industry to a digital-dominated media industry.
His purchase was part of a broader trend at the time in which billionaires, many with backgrounds in technology, snapped up well-dressed media organizations from the previous private equity round.
A few years after Bezos bought The Post, Laurene Powell Jobs bought The Atlantic, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff bought Time Inc., and pharmaceutical executive Patrick Soon-Shiong acquired the Los Angeles Times.
Bezos, like Benioff and Soon-Shiong (who also blocked the approval of his Harris paper), approached Trump after winning the 2024 election. His space company Blue Origin depends on government contracts, and Amazon has faced increased scrutiny under previous administrations.
Lewis reportedly wasn’t there to oversee layoffs and changes at The Post (Murray told Fox News the CEO “has a lot to do today”). And there was no Bezos. As his newspaper prepares to cut a third of its staff, Bezos spent Monday with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in Florida, leading him on a tour of Blue Origin facilities.
Less than 48 hours later, the Washington Post would fire the reporter who reported on Blue Origin.
It seems darkness is creeping in.
