Editor resigns, subscribers cancel as Washington Post's non-support creates crisis at Bezos' newspaper

The Washington Post leadership recently sought a meeting with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, three people familiar with the request said. The campaign has not scheduled a meeting, but one of those people told Semafor that Post editors had assured the campaign that a meeting would have no impact on endorsements. And insiders and outsiders alike assumed that the Post would vote Democrat, as virtually every American newspaper has in the last two elections.

On Friday, readers and staff learned something different: The Post, like the Los Angeles Times (as first reported by Semafor), will no longer endorse candidates. Post editor Will Lewis wrote that “we know” some readers will interpret the decision as an “abdication of responsibility,” and many of his staffers appear to have done so as well.

The first prominent journalist, editor-in-chief Robert Kagan, resigned on Friday in response to the decision, as Semafor first reported. But it could be more: “People are shocked, angry, surprised,” said one editorial member, referring to internal discussions surrounding the resignation. “If you don’t have the courage to own a newspaper, don’t do it.”

Members of the Post's editorial board were stunned Friday to learn of top opinion editor David Shipley's decision. The board wrote a recommendation for Harris earlier this month, which was sent to the newspaper's owner, Jeff Bezos. On Friday, NPR reported that pollsters learned the news at a tense meeting shortly before Lewis' announcement

A person familiar with the numbers told Semafor that the decision appears to have already impacted subscriptions. In the 24 hours ending Friday afternoon, about 2,000 subscribers canceled their subscriptions, an unusually high number, an employee said. Another email the Post sent to subscribers on Friday also sparked a flood of complaints from readers about the paper's lack of a recommendation.

The postal service did not respond to inquiries.