As I write this, I am reading follow-up stories and posts about the dismantling of The Washington Post newsroom by Jeff Bezos, the billionaire who bought the paper in 2013. In 2026, he appears far removed from Washington’s former paper of record—a publication that stood as a voice of conscience during the eras of Joseph McCarthy, Watergate, and Trump 1.0.
The executives carrying out the cuts were hired to save the paper. Instead, they are presiding over its destruction.
I joined the paper in 1970 and stayed until 2004, working as a reporter and, at times, an editor. I was there for the Pentagon Papers and Watergate—for the best of times and some of the worst. I proudly carried the byline “Washington Post Staff Writer.”
Mostly, I worked in Metro, but my stories appeared in every section, including many in Style, covering the Enola Gay controversy at the Smithsonian, and on many long features, some of them edited by the legendary Gene Weingarten, and in Weekend, under the former longtime local columnist, colleague and my friend John Kelly.
The Post had long been an underdog in the competitive world of DC journalism, one of three dailies when I came on board. But the paper’s acquisition of the Washington Times-Herald in 1954 seemed to have sealed its dominance. Its household print penetration was an astonishing 80 percent. Daily circulation soared to 800,000, on Sunday to more than one million.
I started on the District staff, covering what passed for local government, and, after some investigative series (now called “accountability reporting”) I was dispatched to suburban Prince George’s County, Maryland, where my reporting got the sheriff indicted and where I also wrote about the Southern Maryland gentry who lived along the Patuxent River. In time, I became “Mr. Maryland,” ranging across the state from Chesapeake to Appalachia. And I was privileged to mentor many future stars like Gwen Ifill, Michel Martin, John Feinstein and others.
Ironically, I bear the name of the man who bought the Post at a bankruptcy sale in 1933 and built it into a local institution and a national treasure. The goal was always to keep it strong “for Donnie,” that is Don Graham, the grandson of “the other” Eugene Meyer. Don, like his grandfather, loved the paper and those who worked there. Don knew everyone — from the newsroom to the pressroom — by name. Jokingly, he would call me “Grandpop,” and, of course, I called him “Grandson.” We did not always agree. When I chaired the Post Guild Unit in the late 1970s, we were on opposite sides of the bargaining table, but always cordial.
Others, notably former Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler, have charted the paper’s editorial decline as Bezos-hired henchmen sought the secret sauce to turn a sacred public trust impossibly into a cash cow to satisfy the whims of its billionaire owner, who’s more interested in rocketing into space than what is happening on earth.
What happened on Wednesday, Feb. 3, at precisely 8:30 in the morning via Zoom to an imperiled staff, was nothing less than an epic tsunami. The impersonal message was delivered by Matt Murray, the executive editor. Publisher Will Lewis was AWOL, nowhere to be seen. (But not entirely. He was seen in San Francisco walking the NFL “red carpet” before the Super Bowl. Murray reportedly didn’t know.)
Truth and consequences: The recently revived Book World–gone! Most foreign bureaus, including those covering the Middle East, India and Ukraine–gone! Lizzie Johnson, in Kviv, laid off “in the middle of a war zone.” The paper’s investigative unit–seven laid off. The vaunted sports section–obliterated! The already downsized local staff further diminished from barely consequential to virtually inconsequential. Who will turn out the lights?
Bezos once blessed the masthead slogan: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” With the destruction of a once great newspaper, the light grows dimmer and dimmer.
Even the ageless prose poet Martin Weil, who just marked 60 years at the newspaper with some 200 notes of appreciation from former colleagues, was laid off. Erik Wemple, who covered the media for The Post for 14 years before joining The Times last year, has written a moving piece about Marty. It made me cry.
Stories about the layoffs have appeared on multiple websites, in addition to a long story in The New York Times. But so far there is nothing in The Washington Post — except for a full-page house ad the day after directed “TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS” that obliquely states, “You may have read about the restructuring we are undertaking at The Washington Post,” and pledging to “continue to enhance the product… keeping [it] strong,” by — wait for it – buying a new printing press!
I am, frankly, still in shock, and in mourning, for the newspaper that elevated journalism and also gave me so many opportunities and a credential that remains high on my resume. For those summarily and cruelly fired, I thank you for your service, and may the force be with you.
Since 2019, Eugene L. Meyer has been residing in Saugerties while also maintaining a home in Silver Spring, Maryland.