The Washington Post has lost at least 250,000 subscribers since announcing last Friday that it would no longer endorse a presidential candidate, roughly 10 percent of its digital followers, the newspaper reported Wednesday.
The Washington Post did not officially confirm this number, saying it was a private company, but it was mentioned in an article in the newspaper that cited documents and two unnamed sources familiar with the numbers. Another lack of support last week led thousands of Los Angeles Times readers to cancel their subscriptions, though not nearly on the scale of the Washington Post.
One journalism historian, John Marshall of Northwestern University, said he had difficulty recalling a similar reaction, although a boycott of the Arkansas Gazette when it supported the integration of Little Rock schools in 1957 cost that newspaper more than $20 million in today’s dollars.
The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, said the presidential endorsement creates a perception of bias at the newspaper while having little real impact on how readers vote. He said his only regret was announcing the decision when emotions ran high as Election Day approached. The newspaper’s editorial staff had reportedly prepared an endorsement for Democrat Kamala Harris.
“Many people had forgotten about the Harris endorsement scheduled to run in the paper,” wrote Washington Post media critic Eric Wemple. “Few will forget the decision not to publish it.”
The newspaper reported that executive editor Matt Murray told staff at a staff meeting that there had been “several positive days” of new subscriber registrations, although he did not provide any numbers.
Some of The Washington Post’s angry digital readers have already paid for a year’s access, and will keep that until their subscriptions expire.
“In another month or so, the election will be over, and there may be people who say I need the Washington Post more than they need me,” and then come back, said Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute.
The Post also saw a surge in subscribers during Donald Trump’s presidency from people drawn to the paper’s aggressive coverage, raising the possibility of a repeat of that if a man the paper was unwilling to endorse returns to office.
Meanwhile, Edmonds said, “It’s very bad.” After losing readers during the Biden administration, the newspaper reportedly saw positive signs of growth — until this week.
___
David Bauder writes about media for the Associated Press. Follow him on http://x.com/dbauder.