The Washington Post lost over $100 million in 2025, according to a new report Thursday.

The newspaper also lost about $100 million in 2024 and $77 million in 2023, unnamed sources told the Wall Street Journal.

The reported losses preceded the Post earlier this month cutting its staff by 30%. 

The Post acting CEO and Publisher Jeff D’Onofrio and Executive Editor Matt Murray held a staff meeting on Wednesday, during which they described years of overspending and declining productivity.

According to people who attended the meeting, D’Onofrio told newsroom staff that expenses had surpassed revenue from 2022 to 2025 due to the company hiring hundreds of staffers in the years prior.

At the same time, the number of news stories the Post published has fallen by 42% since 2020, but newsroom costs were 16% higher in 2025 compared with 2020, D’Onofrio said.

Murray, a former Journal editor-in-chief, noted the “painfulness of the moment” because of the recent cuts.

“We don’t want or need to do every story or jump on everything that happens,” Murray said. “We’re not a paper of record; there’s no such thing anymore in today’s world.”

“We want to be distinctive, urgent, must-read with every chance we have,” he also said.

D’Onofrio, who started his post earlier this month after the departure of publisher and CEO Will Lewis, said he is looking toward a larger strategic plan.

“Bear with me, because that will take some time and obvious care, but I’m keen to get going on it,” D’Onofrio said. “And we are going to go after it, and we’re going to go after it hard, because we owe it to this place to do that.”