The Washington Post is leaving Silicon Valley when it matters most

To declare that we live in a tech-centric society is to understate it.

Software, especially machine learning and AI, combined with advanced manufacturing has brought technology to street corners, schools, offices, factories, and even farms. This technology, much of it developed in Silicon Valley, is on your wrist, carried in your pocket, embedded in the movies you watch, and maybe even the music you listen to. And that’s the way Amazon packages are ordered, sorted, and delivered to your door.

It has transformed the founders, managers, and middle managers into king-like figures, whose wealth and political power reflect the Old Ages. Seven out of the 10 richest people in the world can tie their wealth directly to technology. Amazon co-founder, chairman, and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is third, behind Meta co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and entrepreneur Elon Musk, according to Forbeswhich follows wealth and the people who own it. Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made the list.

And now, the Bezos-owned Washington Post has cut its news and technology sections as part of a layoff that affected more than 300 people. The division, which includes technology, science, health and business, was cut in half from 80 to 33 people, according to tech reporter Drew Harwell. The tech desk alone cut 14 people. Its San Francisco office is a shell.

Among those affected are Amazon media, artificial intelligence, social media, and research. The newspaper also fired employees of the media company (which had previously reported on Bezos’ ownership of their papers).

The Post cut its entire sports bureau and nearly destroyed its foreign reporting teams, including its Middle East desk, as well as its reporters and editors in Ukraine, Russia, Iran, Turkey, and others. It closed its Books section, weakened the culture and the DC Metro area, and fired all reporters and editors covering racial and ethnic issues across the country.

Technical explanations are less important than social, economic, and political ones. But it has never happened before that the people who have so much influence in the political and economic world are also responsible for preventing the spread of knowledge around the world.

The world is based on technology and is linked to the GDP growth – or return – of its superpowers. Tech’s most powerful leaders are asking people to focus their attention elsewhere.

The Post’s editor-in-chief, Matt Murray, promoted the removal as a rebranding effort aimed at readership and profitability, according to the New York Timeswhich included the comments he made to the staff.

“If anything, today we want to position ourselves as more important in people’s lives that are becoming more crowded, competitive, and complex,” he said during a Zoom meeting with employees.

It’s no secret The Post has lost money and subscribers in recent years, sometimes because of policies created or supported by Bezos. For example, his decision to block the approval of The Post’s editorial board president, writing an editorial in support of Kamala Harris, reportedly led to “hundreds of thousands” of subscriptions, according to the NYT. It is estimated to have lost $100 million in 2024, partly due to blackouts.

His online tours are also he refused. Street lights report that daily trips dropped to around 3 million in 2024, from 22.5 million in January 2021.

The Post cut its workforce from 1,000 to under 800 last spring, with CEO Will Lewis calling a loss of $100 million from last year.

The removal of The Post, of course, there is no empty space. (Media companies, not just incumbent players, have been plagued by shrinking audiences and changes in Google Search algorithms that have driven readers away from news outlets and their AI-generated solutions.)

The size, shape, and location of hatchet fires must also be evaluated. Especially considering the changes in media ownership over the past 15 years.

Bezos’ acquisition of the Post in 2013 for $250 million was met with both skepticism and optimism, with journalists tired of mergers, layoffs, and the growing pains of moving from print-only companies to digital companies.

His acquisition became part of a broader trend at a time when billionaires, many of them tech-savvy, have taken over traditionally well-dressed media organizations.

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 bought the Los Angeles Times.

Bezos, like Benioff and Soon-Shiong (also prohibited his endorsement of Harris), approached Trump after he won the 2024 election. His space company Blue Origin relies on federal contractorsand Amazon faced increased scrutiny under previous administrations.

Lewis did not know that he was in charge of cutting and changing staff at The Post (Murray he told Fox News that the CEO “had a lot of things to do today”). Neither was Bezos. When his newspaper plans to cut a third of its staff, Bezos spent Monday with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of Florida, leads her on a tour of the Blue Origin facility.

Less than 48 hours later, The Washington Post pulled the plug a reporter WHO report on Blue Origin.

Obviously, the darkness is growing.