‘A bad day’: Shashi Tharoor’s son among 300 laid off as Washington Post axes one-third staff

Ishaan, a global affairs columnist with the Post, confirmed his layoff, describing the moment as “heartbreaking”.

“I have been laid off today from the @washingtonpost, along with most of the International staff and so many other wonderful colleagues. I’m heartbroken for our newsroom and especially for the peerless journalists who served the Post internationally — editors and correspondents who have been my friends and collaborators for almost 12 years. It’s been an honour to work with them,” he said.

“I launched the WorldView column in January 2017 to help readers better understand the world and America’s place in it, and I’m grateful for the half a million loyal subscribers who tuned in several times a week over the years,” he added.

Ishaan also posted the phrase “Democracy dies in darkness” on X, captioning it “A bad day”. The post was shared by Shashi Tharoor on his X handle.

`In one of the largest job cuts in recent media history, The Washington Post on Wednesday laid off nearly one-third of its workforce.

The layoffs, expected to have ripple effects across journalism, have hit the sports desk, several foreign bureaus and the publication’s book coverage.

Executive Editor Matt Murray described the decision as “painful” but necessary for the organisation to adapt to changing technology and reader habits.

“We can’t be everything to everyone,” Murray said, as quoted by The New Indian Express.

Over the past few weeks, several Post journalists had appealed to the newspaper’s owner Jeff Bezos to halt the layoffs, but he remained unresponsive.

In 2024, The Washington Post reportedly lost over 200,000 subscribers after it declined to endorse Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris in the US presidential election.

According to The Guardian, the publication lost nearly 250,000 subscribers — about 10 per cent of its total subscriber base.

Apart from the cancellations, several columnists also resigned in protest against the decision not to endorse Harris, who was running against Republican nominee Donald Trump after then President Joe Biden stepped down from the race.