Future layoffs announced at contentious Washington Post town hall

Wednesday was a strange day at The Washington Post.

Publisher Fred Ryan, in what turned out to be a contentious town hall meeting with employees, announced the Post will have a round of layoffs early next year.

My colleague Angela Fu writes in a story for Poynter, “The cuts will affect a ‘single-digit percentage’ of the workforce and take place during the first quarter of 2023, Ryan said. The Post, which employs roughly 2,500 people, is seeking to redirect its resources to invest in areas that will provide ‘high value’ to their readers, according to a spokesperson.”

Post spokesperson Kathy Baird wrote in an emailed statement, “The Washington Post is evolving and transforming to put our business in the best position for future growth. We are planning to direct our resources and invest in coverage, products, and people in service of providing high value to our subscribers and new audiences. As a result, a number of positions will be eliminated. We anticipate it will be a single digit percentage of our employee base, and we will finalize those plans over the coming weeks.”

Baird added that the changes will not lead to a net reduction in headcount: “Recently, we have made some of the largest investments in The Post’s history and 2023 will be another year of continued investment.”

So, wait. What does this all mean? That the Post will simultaneously cut and add jobs? That it will slash jobs that it doesn’t think grows and keeps audiences, while adding jobs in areas that do increase audiences? And might it mean cutting high earners in favor of younger and less expensive staffers?

All that remains up in the air — something that, understandably, frustrates and alarms staffers. They wanted to know more Wednesday, but Ryan took no questions. He didn’t bring up potential layoffs until the very end of his talk. Here’s video of the abrupt ending of Wednesday’s meeting.

The Washington Post’s Elahe Izadi and Sarah Ellison wrote, “The publisher walked out of the meeting after dozens of employees raised their hands and peppered him with questions.”

According to Izadi and Ellison, Post reporter and co-chair of the employee union Katie Mettler said to Ryan, “We have questions.”

Ryan reportedly told the staff, “We’re not going to turn the town hall into a grievance session. I’m sorry, thank you.”

He then added, “We’ll have more information as we move forward.”

The union put out a statement after the meeting, criticizing Ryan for not taking questions, as well as the announcement of layoffs. The statement said, “This behavior is unacceptable from any leader, but especially the leader of a news organization whose core values include transparency and accountability. There is no justification for The Post to lay off employees in a period of record growth and hiring.”

Later in the day, Ryan emailed the staff.

He wrote, in part, that the announcement of layoffs “in no way signals that we are scaling back our ambitions” and “we will never lose sight of the fact that The Washington Post’s excellence is a testament to remarkable qualities of the people who work here.” He also praised Post employees, saying everyone who was at the Post was there “for a reason.”

He said, “These decisions are necessary to ensure that The Washington Post can continue to carry out this mission for decades to come.”

However, Ryan did acknowledge that, “this information will understandably generate a great deal of uncertainty across our organization.”

That’s particularly true if you’re not going to take questions right after dropping a bomb like this.

As Fu noted, “The news comes just weeks after the Post announced it would end the print version of The Washington Post Magazine and cut 10 staff members. That same day, the Post laid off Pulitzer Prize-winning dance critic Sarah L. Kaufman.”

The latest news also comes on the heels of severe layoffs at media outlets including Gannett, CNN and BuzzFeed.

(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

It’s a day that ends in “Y,” so there must be Twitter news.

First, there’s this piece from The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell: “QAnon, adrift after Trump’s defeat, finds new life in Elon Musk’s Twitter.”

Harwell writes, “The billionaire has spread bogus theories about the violent attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband to his 120 million followers, and he called for the criminal prosecution of infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci. He has thrown around baseless accusations about adults sexualizing children, helping stir up an angry online mob against Yoel Roth, a former Twitter safety executive Musk praised in October for his ‘high integrity.’ And on Tuesday, he tweeted a message with an emoji that many people interpreted as saying ‘follow the white rabbit,’ possibly harking back to ‘Alice in Wonderland’ or ‘The Matrix.’ But many QAnon believers saw the rabbit as a wink to one of their foundational icons, a secret indicator shared in one of QAnon’s earliest online prophesies, known as ‘drops.’”

Harwell went on to write, “Musk has never explicitly supported QAnon, and some of his closest allies say they doubt he believes some of the wilder things he says online. One person in Musk’s inner circle, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Musk’s views, said he uses the claims merely to win the internet’s most prized currency: attention. ‘He wants to muck it up,’ the person said.”

Still, there’s a problem. Harwell wrote, “… in QAnon circles, Musk’s ambiguity and plausible deniability have been seen as a strategic way for him to subtly push their dogma into the mainstream.”

Harwell did ask Musk for his thoughts on Qanon. Musk replied in an email: “lol.”

Meanwhile, more Musk-Twitter news. On Wednesday, Twitter suspended the account @ElonJet, which tracked the movements of Musk’s private jet. This is after he said he wouldn’t suspend the account.

On Nov. 6, Musk tweeted, “My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk.”

But on Wednesday, the account, which had about 500,000 followers, was suspended.

Oh, one more note. As of earlier this week, Musk is no longer the richest person in the world. He has dropped behind LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault. CNBC’s Rohan Goswami has more.

There’s now more information on the death of sportswriter Grant Wahl, who collapsed and died last week while covering a soccer match at the World Cup. Wahl died from an aortic aneurysm that ruptured. 

During an appearance on Wednesday’s “CBS Mornings,” Wahl’s wife, Dr. Celine Gounder, said, “It’s just one of these things that had been likely brewing for years, and for whatever reason it happened at this point in time.”

While it makes the death no less tragic, the findings of the autopsy performed by the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office do put an end to various conspiracy theories about Wahl’s death.

Earlier in this World Cup, Wahl was briefly denied entrance to the stadium in Qatar for wearing a rainbow T-shirt in support of LGBTQ rights. That led to suspicions by some that Wahl’s death was due to foul play. There also were theories that his death had something to do with COVID-19.

Gounder told The New York Times’ Apoorva Mandavilli and Andrew Das, “I really do feel some relief in knowing what it was.” She added, “I wanted to make sure the conspiracy theories about his death were put to rest.”

Meanwhile, tributes continue to pour in for Wahl, who spent most of his journalism career at Sports Illustrated.

Gounder told Gayle King of “CBS Mornings,” “To know that he was loved by so many people makes me feel a little less alone. It’s like a warm hug when you really need it.”

For two more interesting conversations about Wahl, I highly recommend two podcasts. The Ringer’s “The Press Box” remembers Wahl as host Bryan Curtis interviews writer and podcastser Musa Okwonga.

And on the “Sports Media Podcast,” host Richard Deitsch interviews Wahl’s former Sports Illustrated colleagues Jon Wertheim, Mark Mravic and Jeff Pearlman.

The career of a longtime Buffalo sports columnist could be over because of really dumb comments he made on a podcast.

Jerry Sullivan wrote for The Buffalo News from 1989 through 2018. He now has been fired from his most recent gigs at WIVB-TV (Channel 4), the Niagara Gazette and the Lockport Union Sun & Journal. He lost his jobs because of sexist comments he made while as a guest on a podcast called “Trainwreck Tonight.”

Oh, it was a trainwreck all right.

After a woman made a livestream comment during the taping of the podcast, Sullivan said, “Women, be better than this! Because the worst fans really are the women. They don’t get critical journalism, they all want to be cheerleaders.”

For a brief moment, Sullivan might have sensed he was saying something wrong, but he continued on, “You know what I mean? It’s always – I don’t want to. It’s a dangerous avenue to go down to criticize women in general because they’re better than men generally, but … they don’t get it as fans.”

The next day, Sullivan apologized on Twitter, writing, “I’d like to apologize for comments I made on a podcast last night that were uncalled for and insulting to women. I should be better than that.”

It was too late to save his jobs.

The Niagara Gazette published a statement that said, “In light of comments made by contributing columnist Jerry Sullivan on a podcast Monday, the Niagara Gazette and Lockport Union Sun & Journal have made the decision to part ways with Sullivan. We do not condone misogynistic, insensitive or derogatory comments in any form.”

The Buffalo News’ Alan Pergament reported that a source told him that Channel 4 in Buffalo also had parted ways with Sullivan, but didn’t have plans to announce it. Pergament noted Sullivan was no longer listed on the station’s website.

Sullivan’s name also made the rounds on national sports shows before his sexist remarks on Monday. Following Sunday’s Buffalo Bills game, Sullivan made the Journalism 101 mistake in a press conference of not asking a question of quarterback Josh Allen, but simply making a statement.

In a clip that has gone viral, Sullivan said, “It doesn’t look like an offense that’s good enough to win a Super Bowl right now.”

Allen looked at Sullivan and said, “OK.”

And that was that.

Stephen “tWitch” Boss in May. (Photo by Christopher Smith/Invision/AP)

Stephen “tWitch” Boss, best known as the DJ on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show, has died. TMZ reported the cause of death was suicide. He was 40.

DeGeneres tweeted a photo of her and tWitch hugging and wrote, “I’m heartbroken. tWitch was pure love and light. He was my family, and I loved him with all my heart. I will miss him. Please send your love and support to Allison and his beautiful children – Weslie, Maddox, and Zaia.”

tWitch began appearing on DeGeneres’ show in 2014 and became the regular DJ until the show’s end last May. He became an executive producer of the show in 2020.

Before Ellen’s show, he was known for finishing runner-up in 2008 on the reality show “So You Think Can Dance.”

He and his wife — Allison Holker Boss, a dancer on “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing with the Stars” — had three children. 

Here’s more from The Hollywood Reporter’s Jackie Strauss.

• Committee to Protect Journalists editorial director Arlene Getz with “Number of jailed journalists spikes to new global record.” The number of imprisoned journalists, as of Dec. 1, was at 363. The five countries that have the most jailed journalists this year are, in order, Iran, China, Myanmar, Turkey, and Belarus. 
• Northeastern University journalism professor and media observer Dan Kennedy with “Sticking Twitter in the freezer.”
• David Jacoby — co-host with Jalen Rose on the ESPN show “Jalen & Jacoby” — announced he is leaving the network after 23 years. He tweeted, “I can’t wait to share what’s next.” Many are speculating that he will join Bill Simmons’ “The Ringer” in some capacity.
• Nieman Lab’s “Predictions for journalism 2023.”
• Donald Trump is suing the Pulitzer Prize Board. MSNBC’s Steve Benen calls it “foolish.”

A superb project from The Oregonian and reporter Noelle Crombie (alongside photographer Beth Nakamura) about violence that has left more than 200 people dead in Portland and Gresham over the past two years: “The Safest Place.”

Here’s a fun list. Variety’s Chris Willman with “Taylor Swift’s 50 Best Songs, Ranked.”

Another fun list: The New York Times with “The Best Cookbooks of 2022.”

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].

The Poynter Report is our daily media newsletter. To have it delivered to your inbox Monday-Friday, sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.

Wednesday was a strange day at The Washington Post.

Publisher Fred Ryan, in what turned out to be a contentious town hall meeting with employees, announced the Post will have a round of layoffs early next year.

My colleague Angela Fu writes in a story for Poynter, “The cuts will affect a ‘single-digit percentage’ of the workforce and take place during the first quarter of 2023, Ryan said. The Post, which employs roughly 2,500 people, is seeking to redirect its resources to invest in areas that will provide ‘high value’ to their readers, according to a spokesperson.”

Post spokesperson Kathy Baird wrote in an emailed statement, “The Washington Post is evolving and transforming to put our business in the best position for future growth. We are planning to direct our resources and invest in coverage, products, and people in service of providing high value to our subscribers and new audiences. As a result, a number of positions will be eliminated. We anticipate it will be a single digit percentage of our employee base, and we will finalize those plans over the coming weeks.”

Baird added that the changes will not lead to a net reduction in headcount: “Recently, we have made some of the largest investments in The Post’s history and 2023 will be another year of continued investment.”

So, wait. What does this all mean? That the Post will simultaneously cut and add jobs? That it will slash jobs that it doesn’t think grows and keeps audiences, while adding jobs in areas that do increase audiences? And might it mean cutting high earners in favor of younger and less expensive staffers?

All that remains up in the air — something that, understandably, frustrates and alarms staffers. They wanted to know more Wednesday, but Ryan took no questions. He didn’t bring up potential layoffs until the very end of his talk. Here’s video of the abrupt ending of Wednesday’s meeting.

The Washington Post’s Elahe Izadi and Sarah Ellison wrote, “The publisher walked out of the meeting after dozens of employees raised their hands and peppered him with questions.”

According to Izadi and Ellison, Post reporter and co-chair of the employee union Katie Mettler said to Ryan, “We have questions.”

Ryan reportedly told the staff, “We’re not going to turn the town hall into a grievance session. I’m sorry, thank you.”

He then added, “We’ll have more information as we move forward.”

The union put out a statement after the meeting, criticizing Ryan for not taking questions, as well as the announcement of layoffs. The statement said, “This behavior is unacceptable from any leader, but especially the leader of a news organization whose core values include transparency and accountability. There is no justification for The Post to lay off employees in a period of record growth and hiring.”

Later in the day, Ryan emailed the staff.

He wrote, in part, that the announcement of layoffs “in no way signals that we are scaling back our ambitions” and “we will never lose sight of the fact that The Washington Post’s excellence is a testament to remarkable qualities of the people who work here.” He also praised Post employees, saying everyone who was at the Post was there “for a reason.”

He said, “These decisions are necessary to ensure that The Washington Post can continue to carry out this mission for decades to come.”

However, Ryan did acknowledge that, “this information will understandably generate a great deal of uncertainty across our organization.”

That’s particularly true if you’re not going to take questions right after dropping a bomb like this.

As Fu noted, “The news comes just weeks after the Post announced it would end the print version of The Washington Post Magazine and cut 10 staff members. That same day, the Post laid off Pulitzer Prize-winning dance critic Sarah L. Kaufman.”

The latest news also comes on the heels of severe layoffs at media outlets including Gannett, CNN and BuzzFeed.

(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

It’s a day that ends in “Y,” so there must be Twitter news.

First, there’s this piece from The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell: “QAnon, adrift after Trump’s defeat, finds new life in Elon Musk’s Twitter.”

Harwell writes, “The billionaire has spread bogus theories about the violent attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband to his 120 million followers, and he called for the criminal prosecution of infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci. He has thrown around baseless accusations about adults sexualizing children, helping stir up an angry online mob against Yoel Roth, a former Twitter safety executive Musk praised in October for his ‘high integrity.’ And on Tuesday, he tweeted a message with an emoji that many people interpreted as saying ‘follow the white rabbit,’ possibly harking back to ‘Alice in Wonderland’ or ‘The Matrix.’ But many QAnon believers saw the rabbit as a wink to one of their foundational icons, a secret indicator shared in one of QAnon’s earliest online prophesies, known as ‘drops.’”

Harwell went on to write, “Musk has never explicitly supported QAnon, and some of his closest allies say they doubt he believes some of the wilder things he says online. One person in Musk’s inner circle, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Musk’s views, said he uses the claims merely to win the internet’s most prized currency: attention. ‘He wants to muck it up,’ the person said.”

Still, there’s a problem. Harwell wrote, “… in QAnon circles, Musk’s ambiguity and plausible deniability have been seen as a strategic way for him to subtly push their dogma into the mainstream.”

Harwell did ask Musk for his thoughts on Qanon. Musk replied in an email: “lol.”

Meanwhile, more Musk-Twitter news. On Wednesday, Twitter suspended the account @ElonJet, which tracked the movements of Musk’s private jet. This is after he said he wouldn’t suspend the account.

On Nov. 6, Musk tweeted, “My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk.”

But on Wednesday, the account, which had about 500,000 followers, was suspended.

Oh, one more note. As of earlier this week, Musk is no longer the richest person in the world. He has dropped behind LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault. CNBC’s Rohan Goswami has more.

There’s now more information on the death of sportswriter Grant Wahl, who collapsed and died last week while covering a soccer match at the World Cup. Wahl died from an aortic aneurysm that ruptured. 

During an appearance on Wednesday’s “CBS Mornings,” Wahl’s wife, Dr. Celine Gounder, said, “It’s just one of these things that had been likely brewing for years, and for whatever reason it happened at this point in time.”

While it makes the death no less tragic, the findings of the autopsy performed by the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office do put an end to various conspiracy theories about Wahl’s death.

Earlier in this World Cup, Wahl was briefly denied entrance to the stadium in Qatar for wearing a rainbow T-shirt in support of LGBTQ rights. That led to suspicions by some that Wahl’s death was due to foul play. There also were theories that his death had something to do with COVID-19.

Gounder told The New York Times’ Apoorva Mandavilli and Andrew Das, “I really do feel some relief in knowing what it was.” She added, “I wanted to make sure the conspiracy theories about his death were put to rest.”

Meanwhile, tributes continue to pour in for Wahl, who spent most of his journalism career at Sports Illustrated.

Gounder told Gayle King of “CBS Mornings,” “To know that he was loved by so many people makes me feel a little less alone. It’s like a warm hug when you really need it.”

For two more interesting conversations about Wahl, I highly recommend two podcasts. The Ringer’s “The Press Box” remembers Wahl as host Bryan Curtis interviews writer and podcastser Musa Okwonga.

And on the “Sports Media Podcast,” host Richard Deitsch interviews Wahl’s former Sports Illustrated colleagues Jon Wertheim, Mark Mravic and Jeff Pearlman.

The career of a longtime Buffalo sports columnist could be over because of really dumb comments he made on a podcast.

Jerry Sullivan wrote for The Buffalo News from 1989 through 2018. He now has been fired from his most recent gigs at WIVB-TV (Channel 4), the Niagara Gazette and the Lockport Union Sun & Journal. He lost his jobs because of sexist comments he made while as a guest on a podcast called “Trainwreck Tonight.”

Oh, it was a trainwreck all right.

After a woman made a livestream comment during the taping of the podcast, Sullivan said, “Women, be better than this! Because the worst fans really are the women. They don’t get critical journalism, they all want to be cheerleaders.”

For a brief moment, Sullivan might have sensed he was saying something wrong, but he continued on, “You know what I mean? It’s always – I don’t want to. It’s a dangerous avenue to go down to criticize women in general because they’re better than men generally, but … they don’t get it as fans.”

The next day, Sullivan apologized on Twitter, writing, “I’d like to apologize for comments I made on a podcast last night that were uncalled for and insulting to women. I should be better than that.”

It was too late to save his jobs.

The Niagara Gazette published a statement that said, “In light of comments made by contributing columnist Jerry Sullivan on a podcast Monday, the Niagara Gazette and Lockport Union Sun & Journal have made the decision to part ways with Sullivan. We do not condone misogynistic, insensitive or derogatory comments in any form.”

The Buffalo News’ Alan Pergament reported that a source told him that Channel 4 in Buffalo also had parted ways with Sullivan, but didn’t have plans to announce it. Pergament noted Sullivan was no longer listed on the station’s website.

Sullivan’s name also made the rounds on national sports shows before his sexist remarks on Monday. Following Sunday’s Buffalo Bills game, Sullivan made the Journalism 101 mistake in a press conference of not asking a question of quarterback Josh Allen, but simply making a statement.

In a clip that has gone viral, Sullivan said, “It doesn’t look like an offense that’s good enough to win a Super Bowl right now.”

Allen looked at Sullivan and said, “OK.”

And that was that.

Stephen “tWitch” Boss in May. (Photo by Christopher Smith/Invision/AP)

Stephen “tWitch” Boss, best known as the DJ on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show, has died. TMZ reported the cause of death was suicide. He was 40.

DeGeneres tweeted a photo of her and tWitch hugging and wrote, “I’m heartbroken. tWitch was pure love and light. He was my family, and I loved him with all my heart. I will miss him. Please send your love and support to Allison and his beautiful children – Weslie, Maddox, and Zaia.”

tWitch began appearing on DeGeneres’ show in 2014 and became the regular DJ until the show’s end last May. He became an executive producer of the show in 2020.

Before Ellen’s show, he was known for finishing runner-up in 2008 on the reality show “So You Think Can Dance.”

He and his wife — Allison Holker Boss, a dancer on “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing with the Stars” — had three children. 

Here’s more from The Hollywood Reporter’s Jackie Strauss.

• Committee to Protect Journalists editorial director Arlene Getz with “Number of jailed journalists spikes to new global record.” The number of imprisoned journalists, as of Dec. 1, was at 363. The five countries that have the most jailed journalists this year are, in order, Iran, China, Myanmar, Turkey, and Belarus. 
• Northeastern University journalism professor and media observer Dan Kennedy with “Sticking Twitter in the freezer.”
• David Jacoby — co-host with Jalen Rose on the ESPN show “Jalen & Jacoby” — announced he is leaving the network after 23 years. He tweeted, “I can’t wait to share what’s next.” Many are speculating that he will join Bill Simmons’ “The Ringer” in some capacity.
• Nieman Lab’s “Predictions for journalism 2023.”
• Donald Trump is suing the Pulitzer Prize Board. MSNBC’s Steve Benen calls it “foolish.”

A superb project from The Oregonian and reporter Noelle Crombie (alongside photographer Beth Nakamura) about violence that has left more than 200 people dead in Portland and Gresham over the past two years: “The Safest Place.”

Here’s a fun list. Variety’s Chris Willman with “Taylor Swift’s 50 Best Songs, Ranked.”

Another fun list: The New York Times with “The Best Cookbooks of 2022.”

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].

The Poynter Report is our daily media newsletter. To have it delivered to your inbox Monday-Friday, sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.