Media reports Washington Post web traffic decreases almost 90 percent

(MENAFN) The Washington Post has seen a dramatic decline in web traffic over the past four years, with daily active users dropping from 22.5 million in January 2021 to just 2.5-3 million by mid-2024, according to internal data shared with Semafor. This sharp drop comes amid financial and editorial struggles, with falling ad revenue, layoffs looming, and rival publications attracting its talent.

The paper’s traffic issues became so severe that it stopped publicly sharing its data in April 2023, and internal reports revealed that advertising revenue fell from $190 million in 2023 to $174 million in 2024. Meanwhile, morale at the newspaper is low, with insiders citing a lack of clear editorial direction and a loss of top staff members.

The decline in readership was exacerbated in October 2023 when Jeff Bezos withheld an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, leading to a significant subscriber loss—about 250,000 subscriptions, or roughly 10% of its paid subscribers. The newspaper also announced layoffs affecting around 4% of its workforce, mainly in business, sales, marketing, and IT departments, in an effort to stabilize its future.

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