WaPo staffers livid after chief editor downplays rate of cancellations: 'No one believes a word he's saying'

Tensions astatine the Washington Post escalated connected Tuesday aft a company-wide gathering aimed astatine addressing the fallout implicit the paper's deficiency of statesmanlike endorsement backfired internally.

NPR reported Tuesday that The Post has shed much than 250,000 subscribers since it revealed its editorial committee would not formally endorse a statesmanlike campaigner contempt readying to endorse Harris past week. The determination sparked an contiguous uproar astatine the "Democracy Dies successful Darkness" paper. At slightest 2 members of the Post's unit person resigned from the paper, portion different 2 near the editorial committee portion staying connected staff. Washington Post journalists are reportedly disquieted that the abrupt nonaccomplishment successful subscribers could pb to occupation cuts.

The paper's enforcement editor, Matt Murray, addressed the canceled subscriptions successful a unit gathering Tuesday afternoon, telling employees that helium could not supply a fig of canceled subscriptions due to the fact that helium was unaware of the full magnitude to date, a Washington Post insider who was contiguous astatine the gathering told Fox News Digital.

WAPO STAFFER UNSURE PAPER CAN RECOVER AS BEZOS-OWNED OUTLET SHEDS 250,000 SUBSCRIBERS OVER ENDORSEMENT FIASCO

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 3: Top Washington Post exertion Matt Murray holds a unit gathering connected June 3, 2024. ((Photo by Robert Miller/The Washington Post via Getty Images))

His feigned ignorance infuriated staffers, according to the source, who accused Murray of lying to hundreds of reporters to prevention face.

"No 1 believes a connection he's saying -- that helium doesn't cognize the subscriptions is beyond belief," the insider said. "He did bespeak helium was acrophobic of leaks… beryllium honorable [he tin say] 'I cognize the number, it's not great, but I'm hopeful it volition stabilize etc.'"

At different constituent during the meeting, Murray apologized for the backlash the endorsement decision caused the insubstantial and expressed appreciation for the dedication of his staff, earlier declaring, "It’s done, it’s happened," the insider told Fox News Digital. 

BEFORE NON-ENDORSEMENT DECISION, WASHINGTON POST CALLED TRUMP 'DREADFUL' AND 'WORST PRESIDENT OF MODERN TIMES'

Murray said helium didn't privation to cognize the fig of canceled subscriptions due to the fact that helium was convinced they would bounce backmost with time. He acknowledged the losses were "substantial" and predicted a "bumpy" roadworthy up but said helium was not informed of immoderate imminent occupation cuts oregon downsizing.

His effort to reassure a riled newsroom was "unsatisfactory and lone made things worse," the root said.

A trio of Post reporters wrote successful a file Sunday that affirmative interior momentum astatine their spot of employment "came to a halt" connected Friday erstwhile the insubstantial revealed it would not endorse a statesmanlike candidate. In the days since, an onslaught of readers posted connected social media astir canceling subscriptions successful protest, prompting Washington Post reporters to fret implicit however galore subscribers would yet locomotion away. 

Billionaire and Washington Post proprietor Jeff Bezos wrote connected op-ed precocious explaining wherefore his insubstantial did not endorse a statesmanlike campaigner this year.

"A cancellation question swept done societal networks. Instead of utilizing an interior analytics instrumentality to cheque postulation to their ain stories, immoderate Post journalists utilized it to illustration the soaring fig of subscribers visiting the lawsuit relationship leafage that allows them to cancel their subscriptions," Post reporters Manuel Roig-Franzia, Herb Scribner and Laura Wagner wrote successful a piece headlined "For The Post, much outrage from readers who accidental they’ve canceled." 

An endorsement of Harris was reportedly drafted and acceptable to people earlier it was abruptly shelved past Friday. The paper, which has been reliably hostile to erstwhile President Trump for years, has endorsed a Democrat for president successful each predetermination since 1976, but for erstwhile it skipped 1 successful 1988.

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Amazon laminitis Jeff Bezos, who bought the insubstantial successful 2013, penned an op-ed defending The Post's decision, insisting that paper endorsements "do thing to extremity the scales of an election" but alternatively "create a cognition of bias." He doubled down connected The Post's determination to extremity its statesmanlike endorsements by saying it's a "principled decision, and it's the close one."

The unit gathering comes a time aft erstwhile WaPo enforcement exertion Marty Baron, who held Murray's presumption for astir a decennary earlier retiring successful 2021, torched Bezos for "betraying the principles helium professed" and called non-endorsement determination "a superior mistake" that has "done tremendous harm to the marque of the Washington Post."

The Washington Post did not respond to Fox News Digital's petition for comment.

Fox News' David Rutz contributed to this report.