Funds have continued to pour in to support workers affected by layoffs at The Washington Post, raising more than $700,000 across two GoFundMe campaigns.
The layoffs, affecting hundreds of workers, were announced last Wednesday. Five days later, around 4,700 supporters had donated over $520,000 to a GoFundMe page set up for laid-off staff.
The page, launched just a few hours after company executives began cutting workers, was organized by Post reporter Rachel Siegel and other members of the newsroom’s union.
A separate GoFundMe page for the Post’s international employees has also raised almost $200,000 with about 2,100 donations.
The fundraising push for international staff was set up by the Post’s Tokyo bureau chief, Michelle Lee. The funds will be disbursed to laid-off international employees who are not covered by the newsroom’s union.
The Post is owned by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In a statement this weekend, Bezos said: “The Post has an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity.”
“Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus.”
Kara Swisher, the tech journalist and ex-Post employee, gave $10,000 to the page set up for laid-off staff.
The former Washington Post executive editor, Martin Baron, appeared to have donated $9,000 in total, comprising $4,000 for the international staff GoFundMe and $5,000 for the general one.
Other top donors appeared to include longtime former and current staffers Dan Balz, Eugene Robinson, and Lois Romano.
The amount of money in the fundraisers and the speed at which they hit six figures make them outliers among media layoff fundraisers.
Laid-off staffers at Vox Media pulled in about $7,000 in their January GoFundMe, while Teen Vogue got about $41,000 after November layoffs.
“Post Guild members have come together to support their colleagues with this GoFundMe,” said a spokesperson for the Washington Baltimore News Guild last week.
The spokesperson blamed “inexcusable business decisions of top Post leadership” for the cuts.
“The Washington Post is taking a number of difficult but decisive actions today for our future, in what amounts to a significant restructuring across the company,” a Post spokesperson said last week in a statement on the layoffs.
“These steps are designed to strengthen our footing and sharpen our focus on delivering the distinctive journalism that sets The Post apart and, most importantly, engages our customers.”
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