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Washington Post CEO refuses to take questions on layoffs, leaves meeting midway
The newspaper's employee organisation shared a video clip where the CEO was seemingly evading questions thrown at him by the worried staff members.
The Washington Post CEO Fred Ryan on Wednesday announced at a town hall meeting that a number of layoffs are on the horizon in the first quarter of 2023 and walked out, abandoning a number of crucial questions from its employees. The Jeff Bezos-owned news organisation decided to shut its Sunday magazine and fire 11 of its newsroom employees.
In what was supposed to be an hour-long meeting, Ryan walked out right after he announced the news about layoffs next year. The newspaper's employee organisation, Washington Post Guild, shared a video clip where the CEO was seemingly evading questions thrown at him by the worried staff members.
“Today, we came into WaPo’s so-called town hall with questions about recent layoffs and the future of the company. Our publisher dropped a bombshell on us by announcing more layoffs and then walking out, refusing to answer any of our questions,” the Guild said in a series of tweets.
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The CEO also announced that nearly 2,500 employees of the prestigious news company will experience a “single-digit" percentage decrease in the workforce. However, the publisher also said new jobs will be created to fill the gap for those who were “no longer serving readers”.
Several video clips on social media platform show that Ryan runs off the stage after making the announcement while refusing to “turn the town hall into a grievance session”.
Anxious employees could be heard asking questions on The Post's plan to protect people's jobs and reassure them.
“Why can’t our publisher give us the transparency we hold as the central tenet of this news organization? How can he turn his back on workers with urgent questions and valid concerns?" the Guild tweeted.
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The Guild further said that people working for The Post have world-class experience with institutional knowledge and unique skills, and cannot be easily replaced.
