Sacked Washington Put up workers, together with Shashi Tharoor’s son, pen sombre notes after layoffs

Washington Put up workers, together with Ishaan Tharoor, son of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, shared heartfelt and sombre messages on social media as one of many world’s premier media organisations introduced widespread layoffs earlier on Wednesday (February 4, 2026), affecting its worldwide reportage footprint and sports activities desk.

In a put up on X, Ishaan Tharoor stated he was “heartbroken” over being laid off and expressed solidarity along with his friends who confronted the identical destiny.

The Washington Put up laid off one-third of its workers on Wednesday (February 4, 2026), eliminating its sports activities part, a number of overseas bureaus and its books protection in a widespread purge that represented a brutal blow to journalism and one among its most legendary manufacturers.

“I’ve been laid off in the present day from the Washington Put up, together with a lot of the Worldwide workers and so many different great colleagues. I’m heartbroken for our newsroom and particularly for the peerless journalists who served the Put up internationally–editors and correspondents who’ve been my mates and collaborators for nearly 12 years. It’s been an honour to work with them,” he stated in his put up.

Mr. Tharoor additionally said that launching the WorldView column in 2017 to assist readers perceive international affairs had been an honour, thanking the half 1,000,000 loyal subscribers who adopted his work.

“A nasty day,” Mr. Tharoor said in a separate put up, sharing an image of an empty newsroom.

The Put up’s govt editor, Matt Murray, known as the transfer painful however essential to place the outlet on stronger footing and to climate modifications in know-how and person habits. “We will’t be all the things to everybody,” Mr. Murray stated in a be aware to workers members.

Rumours of layoffs had circulated for weeks, ever since phrase leaked that sports activities reporters who had anticipated to journey to Italy for the Winter Olympics wouldn’t be going. However when official phrase got here down, the dimensions and scale of the cuts have been surprising, affecting nearly each division within the newsroom.

The newspaper has been bleeding subscribers partly as a consequence of selections made by Mr. Bezos, together with pulling again from an endorsement of Kamala Harris, a Democrat, through the 2024 presidential election towards Donald Trump, a Republican, and directing a extra conservative activate liberal opinion pages.