After non-endorsement, 250,000 subscribers cancel The Washington Post

At least 250,000 Washington Post readers have canceled their subscriptions since the news organization announced Friday that the editorial page would end its decadeslong practice of endorsing presidential candidates. The figures represent about 10% of the Post’s digital subscribers.

The Post began experiencing a huge spike in the number of subscribers looking to cancel online starting Friday in the wake of the announcement by CEO and publisher William Lewis, according to documents and two people familiar with the figures who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to comment publicly. By Tuesday, the number reached 250,000, the documents indicate.

The number does not take into account how many new subscribers have signed up for the Post during the same period, or how many who canceled may have changed their minds later and resubscribed. It’s also unclear how many of those who canceled subscriptions also receive print editions of the Post.

A Post spokeswoman declined to comment on subscription numbers. The Post is a privately held company that does not typically share such data with the public.

Matt Murray, the executive editor who oversees news coverage (which is separate from the opinions department), told the news staff in a meeting Tuesday that he did not know how many subscribers had canceled, while acknowledging it “could be substantial.” He cautioned that the full picture on the impact to the business is not clear.

“There’s a view that the numbers are going to be bumpy and rough for a couple weeks, and we’ll see how they settle down,” he said. “I think everybody’s trying to just take a few weeks to see where the numbers all come out.”

Not all of the cancellations will take immediate effect. For instance, many subscribers have yearly accounts and will continue to have access to the Post until their accounts expire. (The number of subscribers who have completely terminated their accounts is in the low thousands, according to a person close to the situation who was not authorized to share details.) Digital traffic to the website also has been up in recent days.

The cancellation figure was first reported by NPR.

On Friday, Lewis announced that the Post would stop endorsing presidential candidates, calling it a return to the paper’s roots and a sign of its independence. He rejected the notion that it represents a tacit endorsement – or rejection – of either candidate.

Post owner Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, made the decision to stop the practice of presidential endorsements, according to reporting by the Post and others. In an op-ed Monday, Bezos called it “a principled decision” to bolster the paper’s position as an independent source of information and said it was intended to help restore trust in the media.

He also expressed regret about the timing of the announcement – just 11 days before the election – which has prompted speculation that he was seeking to curry favor with a possible second Trump administration, given his many business interests before the federal government. Bezos denied that, writing that there was “no quid pro quo of any kind” and that the decision “was made entirely internally.”

A draft endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris had been written before the decision to no longer endorse, according to reporting by the Post.

Presidential endorsements are made by the Post’s Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom and is overseen by opinion editor David Shipley.

But despite the assurances from Bezos and Lewis, the blowback has been intense. More than 20 Post opinion columnists dissented in a piece the Post published, and three members of the editorial board stepped down from that role, while remaining on the staff. Tens of thousands of readers left comments on the Post stories about the fallout, including from those who said they were canceling subscriptions after being loyal readers for decades, alarmed by what they viewed as a capitulation to Donald Trump.

At Tuesday’s staff meeting, Murray said the Post had also had several positive days of signing up new subscribers, and “we would expect more in the election.” He did not provide specific numbers, but a person familiar with Post subscriptions said the company saw a higher-than-normal number of new subscriptions over the past few days.

News staffers at the meeting repeatedly pressed for transparency into subscriber losses. Some reporters said their sources – people they rely on for interviews – were now also hesitant to talk to them, skeptical that Bezos does not influence the Post’s news coverage. Murray pointed to the Post’s aggressive reporting, including recent stories with reporting about Bezos, and said no one “at the company level” interferes with the newsroom’s journalism.

Media companies have been jockeying to grow their paid digital subscriptions as a core way to earn revenue. Many saw their massive digital audiences erode after the first Trump administration and the coronavirus pandemic, when interest in the news reached a fever pitch.

Some, like CNN, are experimenting with paywalls for the first time. Others, like the New York Times, have made formerly free content, such as archive episodes of “The Daily” podcast, only available to paying subscribers.

The Post saw its digital subscribers peak at 3 million in January 2021. It has dropped off since then to about 2.5 million now.

The company was projected to lose $100 million last year, but ended up losing $77 million after an employee buyout program reduced company staffing by about 10%. Bezos brought in Lewis this year to help recover lost subscriptions and grow other parts of the business.

Earlier this month, employees were told at a companywide meeting, which was also reported by the New York Times, that the Post was starting to see modest, positive subscriber growth after two years of declining numbers.