The Washington Post lost around 8% of their total subscribers this week after owner Jeff Bezos reportedly blocked the newspaper’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.
As of Monday, more than 200,000 readers have canceled their subscription to the paper with the number continuing to grow, according to NPR, citing two people at the paper with knowledge of internal matters.
“It’s a colossal number,” former Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli told NPR. “The problem is, people don’t know why the decision was made. We basically know the decision was made but we don’t know what led to it.”
In a rare op-ed on Monday, Bezos defended the decision not to endorse a candidate in the election saying such endorsements have no impact on the election and that deciding not to endorse is “a meaningful step in the right direction.”
“What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias,” Bezos wrote. “A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.”
‘I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it,” Bezos admitted. “That was inadequate planning, and not some intentional strategy.”
Bezos also addressed reports about Trump’s meeting with executives from his company, Blue Origin, the same day the Post announced it would not endorse in the race. He denies that there is a connection.
“I didn’t know about the meeting beforehand,” he said. “The meeting was scheduled quickly that morning. There is no connection between it and our decision on presidential endorsements, and any suggestion otherwise is false.”
In addition to hemorrhaging subscribers, two columnists have also resigned from the paper and two writers have stepped down from the editorial board since Bezos’ decision.
