Jeff Bezos’ decision to spike Washington Post’s Kamala Harris endorsement sparks crisis

Bezos halted the Washington Post’s Harris endorsement, triggering a crisis that saw 250,000 subscriber cancellations.

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire Amazon founder and owner of The Washington Post, has reportedly triggered a crisis within the newspaper after halting a planned endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris. The fallout from this decision has led to significant internal tension, with executives scrambling to address the backlash as readership cancellations surged. According to reports, over 250,000 subscribers have now withdrawn from the paper, leading to millions in revenue loss, as revealed by NPR's David Folkenflik.

The endorsement’s withdrawal sparked intense discussions within the paper’s leadership. Initially, executives sought to distance Bezos from the editorial decision, but over the weekend, further reporting confirmed his involvement. The New York Times reported that Bezos ultimately made the call to cancel Harris’s endorsement, which led to an overnight dip in subscriptions as frustrated readers reacted to the abrupt change. As the crisis unfolded last Friday, Bezos was in Europe with his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, celebrating singer Katy Perry’s birthday, documented in an Instagram story Sanchez shared that was later featured in Hello! magazine.

Washington Post publisher Will Lewis, who reportedly opposed the decision to drop political endorsements, penned an editorial explaining the policy change. Released just before noon on Friday, the essay affirmed that the Post's leadership made the call independently. However, Bezos later addressed the decision himself, acknowledging that its timing could have been better handled. "I wish we had made the change earlier… further from the election," he wrote, admitting that the timing created unnecessary tension.

The financial repercussions have sent waves across the media landscape, with several outlets quickly responding to the fallout. The Guardian US capitalized on the reader frustration, launching a fundraising drive that brought in $1.5 million in pledges in a single day, surpassing their previous record. Similarly, The Atlantic and Vox sought to attract new subscribers with messaging contrasting their editorial stances to the Washington Post’s new policy direction.

The Washington Post had experienced a slow decline in subscriber numbers but began to regrow its base after renewed interest in Vice President Harris’s campaign. Now, with this subscriber exodus, The Post may face tough financial decisions, potentially delaying plans for media acquisitions or even prompting Lewis to seek financial backing from Bezos.