The rise and fall of The Washington Post

The newspaper that brought down a president now can't even cover the Winter Olympics — gutted by 30% layoffs and losing 100,000 daily readers.

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By The Numbers

900K

peak daily circulation

$100M

loss in 2024

<100K

daily circulation today

What They Nailed Early

Built journalistic integrity as a public service mission. Katherine Graham's courage to publish Pentagon Papers and Watergate reporting made the Post the most influential newspaper in America. Won union battles that unlocked monopoly profits.

What Changed

Trump era made the Post a one-trick pony — addicted to political outrage instead of diversifying like the Times did with cooking, games, and bundles. When Biden came in and the zone stopped flooding, subscribers fled. Then Bezos killed a Harris endorsement to protect his Amazon contracts, torching credibility overnight.

Where it Landed

300+ reporters laid off (30% of staff). Subscribers down from 3M to under 2M. Lost $100M in 2024. Daily circulation below 100K — less than mid-tier regional papers. The paper that took down Nixon now spikes stories to protect the owner's pocketbook.

The Principles

Diversify or die. The Post bet everything on political news while the Times built cooking, Wordle, and bundles — when the political moment passed, only one survived.

Monopoly pricing power isn't forever. When Craigslist killed classifieds and the internet destroyed distribution control, newspapers lost the toll bridge that funded everything else.

Owner incentives matter more than legacy. Bezos has billions in government contracts at stake — when the Post became a threat to Amazon, journalistic integrity became expendable.

Builder's Takeaway

3 warning signs your business model is already dead:

•

You're a one-trick pony riding a temporary wave (political outrage, viral trend)

•

Your pricing power depends on distribution monopoly the internet can route around

•

Owner's other interests create existential conflicts with your core mission

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