Post has been going downhill for quite a while.

When I was growing up in the Maryland suburbs, I delivered the Evening Star. Now that was a great paper. Those days are long gone. 

Gwmayhem wrote:

This is so much more than sad.  It's reprehensible.

Not looking to rile up Rising or any other Trump supporter but these moves are being made solely with an audience of one in mind.

The only decent thing to do is change the name since it will be beyond insulting to anyone who helped make The Washington Post an institution to continue to call this stripped-down product by the same name.  

C'mon Gwmayhem this is an absurd post. The Washington Post is eliminating its sports section because Trump wants them to? I want to hear the twisted logic behind that one. I'm being serious. 

Seriously, you need to get in touch with the fact that news and particularly sports are consumed much differently than they were even 10 years ago, especially among those 45 and younger. The Post Sports section has been dying a slow death for years and before Trump was in office (at least the second term). When was the last time you saw a Post Reporter at the Smith Center? Have you seen a HS box score? As someone once said to me recently who formerly worked at the Post ... "You can't even wipe your ass with the Post Sports Section anymore ... it's too thin."

By the way, I am a conservative and not necessarily a Trump supporter on every issue. The alternatives that were offered both within the Republican Party and Democratic Party I agreed with a lot less.

GWRising wrote:

Gwmayhem wrote:

This is so much more than sad.  It's reprehensible.

Not looking to rile up Rising or any other Trump supporter but these moves are being made solely with an audience of one in mind.

The only decent thing to do is change the name since it will be beyond insulting to anyone who helped make The Washington Post an institution to continue to call this stripped-down product by the same name.  

C'mon Gwmayhem this is an absurd post. The Washington Post is eliminating its sports section because Trump wants them to? I want to hear the twisted logic behind that one. I'm being serious. 

Seriously, you need to get in touch with the fact that news and particularly sports are consumed much differently than they were even 10 years ago, especially among those 45 and younger. The Post Sports section has been dying a slow death for years and before Trump was in office (at least the second term). When was the last time you saw a Post Reporter at the Smith Center? Have you seen a HS box score? As someone once said to me recently who formerly worked at the Post ... "You can't even wipe your ass with the Post Sports Section anymore ... it's too thin."

By the way, I am a conservative and not necessarily a Trump supporter on every issue. The alternatives that were offered both within the Republican Party and Democratic Party I agreed with a lot less.

The Gaurdian noted that yesterday Bezos  is silent about the Post, but found time to welcome Pete Hegseth to the campus that houses his space venture.
Bezos made a business decision. He pulled the Harris endorsement and changed the Post’s editorial position to protect his more substantial business interests.


Funny how the super wealthy saw themselves with no options and regular folk in Minneapolis found the will and methods to push back.

Gwmayhem wrote:

Rising, Bezos has transformed the Post from an important national paper to an irrelevant one.  Trump does not care about a sports section; he cares about having less critics.  FredD got it right in that this all started with the pulled Haris endorsement, with today being the second major body punch.  

People do consume news differently these days but that's not what's behind today's layoffs.  This is not a financial decision.  The Post has a national following making it conducive towards deemphasizing local sports.  Nevertheless, it's most successful columnists were noted for writing about subjects and issues of national interest.  (Am not saying that they never wrote about local teams so please spare me that argument.).. 

The Post became more irrelevant today as a result of these cuts and layoffs.  This has the awful stench of Bezos doing whatever he can to stay on Trump's good side.  Pretty hard not to see this unless you refuse to look.

If you think Trump gives a rat's ass about whether the Washington Post has sports coverage or not, I don't know what to tell you. I wasn't aware that the Post Sports section was a frequent Trump critic. I wasn't aware that the Post Sports Section pulled the Harris endorsement.

FredD wrote:

GWRising wrote:

Gwmayhem wrote:

Rising, Bezos has transformed the Post from an important national paper to an irrelevant one.  Trump does not care about a sports section; he cares about having less critics.  FredD got it right in that this all started with the pulled Haris endorsement, with today being the second major body punch.  

People do consume news differently these days but that's not what's behind today's layoffs.  This is not a financial decision.  The Post has a national following making it conducive towards deemphasizing local sports.  Nevertheless, it's most successful columnists were noted for writing about subjects and issues of national interest.  (Am not saying that they never wrote about local teams so please spare me that argument.).. 

The Post became more irrelevant today as a result of these cuts and layoffs.  This has the awful stench of Bezos doing whatever he can to stay on Trump's good side.  Pretty hard not to see this unless you refuse to look.

If you think Trump gives a rat's ass about whether the Washington Post has sports coverage or not, I don't know what to tell you. I wasn't aware that the Post Sports section was a frequent Trump critic. I wasn't aware that the Post Sports Section pulled the Harris endorsement.

It’s not Trump it’s Bezos trying to curry favor with Trump that caused the Post’s subscriber base to crater. As a result of that consequence today’s layoffs are logical, but short sighted. Giving people a weak limited product will only hasten the death spiral.

Thank you FredD.

Rising, what part of "Trump does not care about a sports section" led you to write "if you think Trump gives a rat's ass about whether The Washington Post has sports coverage or not, I don't know what to tell you"?

Rather than simply fly off the handle, please take a moment and try to comprehend what I am actually saying.  This issue is about making The Post irrelevant in the eyes of Trump.  Doing away with the sports section is one means towards that end.  (as in, no sports, or for that matter, no books section, reduced Metro coverage, and more limited international bureaus, all mean another substantial loss in subscribers which leads to less relevance.).

Well, at least now there will be an explaination for the lack of coverage of GW basketball in the local paper of record! And now where will I go to see what is playing at the Kennedy Center?
As a former newspaper reporter myself (and friend of people who lost their jobs today), I am saddened by the demise print/written journalism. Whenever we did reader surveys asking what people wanted to see more of the the newspaper, the most common response was "News!", but alas "shareholder equity", "efficiency" and "eyeballs" were the things the bean counters were always more interested in than "customer satisfaction". It does not help that ownership nowadays has both consolidated and is in bed with advertising and/or political actors far more often than it is a part of the community. Sad. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

The POST's GW sports coverage has been weak since the early 1960's, became deplorable about 30 years ago, then essentially non-existant for the past 10 years or so.  Ergo, GW coverage is already irrelevant to any discussion of POST sports coverage, and has been for many years.   That said, the only reason I continue to subscribe to the hard copy POST is the Sports section.   The end of Sports coverage will hasten the end of the hard copy newspaper.  I don't see how a city can claim to be "major league" in any serious sport and have no Sports coverage in its daily newspaper.   The decision to end Sports coverage is not strange, or a business decision, etc., - it is inconceivable and 100% unacceptable - end of conversation.   This city has no business having the Nats, Commanders, or Wizards if Bezos is allowed to proceed with his plan to make the POST devoid of serious Sports coverage - period.