From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams.

This is The Daily.

When Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post more than a decade ago,

journalists inside and outside of the newsroom were cautiously optimistic.

Maybe he could revitalize one of America's most storied news organizations.

Brutal blow to one of journalism's most legendary brands, the Washington Post is laying off one-third

of its staff across all departments. Those hopes, though, were dashed on Wednesday, when the paper

laid off more than a third of its newsroom, affecting nearly every section of the paper.

The newspaper's books department will close. Its post reports podcast suspended.

Its entire sports department and most of its overseas journalists.

Today, I talked to my colleague Eric Wemple about what went wrong and what comes next.

It's Thursday, February 5th.

Eric Womble, welcome to The Daily.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

A lot of people listening to our show today

probably have some kind of awareness that people have been talking in really apocalyptic terms

about the state of affairs at the Washington Post. And specifically, the layoffs that happened

on Wednesday, which were described by many people as frankly a bloodbath. And you, Eric, you are not only a media reporter at the New York

Times, but you also were a media columnist at the Washington Post. And this is why we wanted to talk to you

today because of this unique vantage point that you have. So just to start, tell us what we know about

these cuts. So this is an extremely grim outcome at the Washington Post, a dark day, as many people

...