The Washington Post is cutting deeper. And the sports desk may be next.
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According to Puck's Dylan Byers, internal chatter inside the newsroom suggests the Post could eliminate or heavily downsize its sports department, with the foreign desk also facing significant cuts.
The report comes days after the paper abruptly scrapped its planned Winter Olympics coverage in Milano Cortina just two weeks before the opening ceremony, despite already spending more than $80,000 on housing and logistics.
On the surface, it looks like another cost-cutting move at a legacy media company under financial strain. In reality, it signals something more existential.
The Post's sports section was once among the gold standards in American journalism. This was the home of Shirley Povich, Thomas Boswell, Tony Kornheiser, Sally Jenkins, John Feinstein, Christine Brennan and a young Michael Wilbon. It was a place where sports writing often felt closer to literature than box scores.
That identity has been eroding. Buyouts in recent years disproportionately hit veteran reporters, draining institutional memory and thinning the desk's voice. The Washington Post Guild says at least 60 journalists accepted buyouts in 2025 alone, part of a broader wave of departures across the newsroom.
Financial pressure has driven much of the turmoil. Publisher Will Lewis acknowledged major losses after stepping into the role in late 2023, and subscriber cancellations surged following Jeff Bezos' decision to block a presidential endorsement in 2024. Multiple rounds of layoffs followed.
If the sports desk is shuttered, the Post would follow the New York Times, which closed its sports department after acquiring The Athletic. Unlike the Times, the Post does not have a built-in sports outlet to replace that coverage.
