Washington Post Sports is dead (HTTR)

[machpost]

TalkNats says they are still covering the Nats, and have people on-site at Palm Beach, but that the Nationals will not credential them so they have to pay their own way into the park (and pay for parking).

Are they credentialing any bloggers these days? I know there was a time when this was a popular thing to do, but these days there are hardly any bloggers out there covering the Nats on a daily basis.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Chelsea Janes hasn't posted anything yet, probably would have by now if she had been laid off.

Janes and Svrluga could do the culture/social stuff and probably features. Janes did a stint covering politics in 2019 and 2020.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

FWIW, the NYT is profitable and growing. Not to get into the political side, but Bezos has to walk a fine line with the Post given the reliance of Amazon/AWS/Blue Origin on government contracts. I think that put the Post into a death spiral last year when so many (including me) cancelled their subscriptions after he made changes to the editorial department. I don't see how an independent news outlet survives when it is so closely tied to companies that rely on the government for so much of their income.

FWIW, John Henry owns the Boston Globe. I don't know if it is profitable but he more or less doesn't have to rely on government contracts or even the government building him a stadium. FSG has two great properties in Liverpool and the Red Sox, and recently turned a profit on flipping the Penguins after a few years.

Leonsis definitely should step into this space. It would give him more content for Monumental.

[imref]

Janes and Svrluga both post that they were both among the cuts. Just awful.




Saw someone point out that without the Post sports reporters, Danny would probably still own the Commanders

[welch]

I have read the Post since before I could read...I still remember a Sunday front page of Harry Truman taking a walk near the White House. (In those days, the Sunday front page had a color photo. Learned to read in the Post sports section.

I will cancel.

[HalfSmokes]

Gee, I hope they cut their subscription price because I'll be getting half a paper.

Yes, I'll wind down my subscription. I will probably subscribe to the NYT and maybe the Guardian or Texas Tribune (Boston.com for baseball season).

Svrluga is in a tough position as I think Susan S also works there. I think both Barry S and Chelsea Janes can land anyplace they want if they want.

As for the "cultural and social" angle, I'm not sure how much bigger a cultural and social phenomenon there is than the Super Bowl.

Why subscribe? With no local coverage, there are free alternatives that are 95% as good

[HalfSmokes]

Hopefully the athletic grabs a couple of them. Ironic that the NYT has a larger Washington sports desk than the post

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Janes should land on MLB TV or maybe NBC's Sunday coverage. Svrluga is kind of tied to DC unless Susan was let go. Her beat is education, which I would think is national, so she may be safe. Maybe Barry ends up with ESPN as a columnist. He's too good not to get picked up.

[HalfSmokes]

Janes should land on MLB TV or maybe NBC's Sunday coverage. Svrluga is kind of tied to DC unless Susan was let go. Her beat is education, which I would think is national, so she may be safe. Maybe Barry ends up with ESPN as a columnist. He's too good not to get picked up.

ESPN is constantly cutting guys like Svrluga and leaning into louder talking heads

[imref]

Apparently mlb.com had a round of layoffs today as well

[Natsinpwc]

ESPN is constantly cutting guys like Svrluga and leaning into louder talking heads

Maybe he can dress like Pat McAfee.

[Smithian]

Apparently mlb.com had a round of layoffs today as well

Lots of newspaper today letting people go today. They all realized WaPo would be a heat shield and quietly dumping people while everyone is mad at Bezos

[imref]

Mark Ein, member of the commanders ownership group says dc needs a sports media and he’s on it.

https://x.com/Markein/status/2019132554708938838?s=20

[imref]

Sally Jenkins:
https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026/02/washington-post-sports-section-cut/685888/

[welch]

Jesse D. reflects on the disintegration of the Post.

I’m certainly not in the business at the moment of trying to help the people at the top who profit off this newspaper or stand to profit, but for those who have the thought of canceling their subscription right now, I think I can speak for a lot of my laid off colleagues and say while it feels good to know you have our backs, investing in media and investing in storytelling and investing in information is really, really, really critical right now.

And there’s so many people that I work with, or worked with, that are going to keep going, and they’re going to keep telling stories and trying to find information, and they need people to support that work more than ever. So if your knee-jerk reaction is to cancel a subscription over this, I would just say that it just might not be exactly what we need at the moment.

https://wtop.com/local/2026/02/deep-and-profound-sadness-washington-post-sports-reporter-shares-emotions-after-mass-layoffs-at-the-paper/?fbclid=IwY2xjawPxj6VleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeFRuX71huI5JyU0xGhGD9otA2_o9VbyWLN6rEHUtE1vCM2NeiLqLGBdKi2zA_aem_MqKQbFnjIC3WiHIwjE4QaQ

[imref]

I think we'll see a new DC sports media outlet arise fairly quickly. Jake Sherman, founder of Puck News, posted that he's willing to invest in a new entity as well.

[blue911]

I have read the Post since before I could read...I still remember a Sunday front page of Harry Truman taking a walk near the White House. (In those days, the Sunday front page had a color photo. Learned to read in the Post sports section.

I will cancel.

Do the Record and Star-Ledger still exist? They both had decent sports pages at one time.

[welch]

Do the Record and Star-Ledger still exist? They both had decent sports pages at one time.

Don't know. I used to read the Newark Star Ledger when we lived in Montclair, NY, home of Yogi Berra. We moved back to Manhattan more than 20 years ago, however.

I think NJ.com might be the old Star Ledger as an electronic newspaper. On-line, at least, it still has a sports section.

https://www.nj.com/

[machpost]

Star-Ledger shut down their print version last February.

[IanRubbish]

Believe it was the Post who broke the Traject Arc story last year.  Most of the blogs are shills for the Lerners.   This is not good for anyone who wants actual news, not South Capitol Street propaganda.

[welch]

Star-Ledger shut down their print version last February.

Sad.

[English Natsie]

The Post was featured on this evenings French TV news...

https://www.franceinfo.fr/replay-jt/france-2/20-heures/jt-de-20h-du-samedi-7-fevrier-2026_7755302.html

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Lewis is out as publisher and CEO.

[HalfSmokes]

Lewis is out as publisher and CEO.

I wholly expect it to be further gutted and eventually passed around by private equity firms until the name is eventually sold to authentic brands

[JCA-CrystalCity]

I wholly expect it to be further gutted and eventually passed around by private equity firms until the name is eventually sold to authentic brands

Bezos could have sold if he just didn't want it to hurt AWS and Blue Origen. He's hanging on for some reason.