Washington Post's mass layoffs spark GoFundMe campaign for journalists, other affected staff

In response to significant layoffs at The Washington Post, a GoFundMe campaign has been initiated to support affected international staff.

As US-based news outlet The Washington Post reels from one of the deepest rounds of layoffs in its history, a senior employee from its international desk has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help colleagues left abruptly without jobs, protections or, in some cases, basic security.

With over 80% of the international desk cut, journalists faced urgent financial hardships and logistical challenges. (Bloomberg)

The fundraiser was started after the Post laid off hundreds of employees on February 4, 2026, a move that widely affected its international operations. Among those let go were dozens of overseas correspondents and locally hired staff, including, for instance, Ishaan Tharoor, the son of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.

According to the ongoing GoFundMe page, the fundraiser has already drawn strong support, raising almost all of its 160,000-dollar target, through contributions from around 1,400 donors.

The affected employees include reporters, editors, researchers, translators, office managers and drivers working out of bureaus from Cairo to Mexico City.

Many were hired through subsidiaries outside the United States, making them ineligible for union protections and severance terms available to US-based staff.

As a result, several are now facing sudden loss of income, housing, visas and health benefits, along with serious logistical and security concerns.

The fundraiser is being overseen by the Post's Tokyo/Seoul bureau chief Michelle Lee, along with fellow Post journalists Rebecca Tan and others.

The organisers said that 100 per cent of the money raised will be distributed directly to laid-off international employees through services such as Venmo, Zelle, Western Union and bank transfers.

The funds are intended to help cover urgent expenses including rent, legal advice, visa issues, relocation to safer countries, storage of belongings and other immediate transition needs.

In a series of emotional LinkedIn posts, Lee described the layoffs as devastating and said the international desk had been “gutted”. She said more than 80 per cent of the Post’s international staff were let go in a single week, including reporters working in war zones without electricity, breaking news teams in Seoul and London, and correspondents who had relocated overseas only months earlier.

Lee wrote that many of the journalists had risked their lives to report on authoritarian regimes, armed groups, international crime networks and global conflicts, often while living far from their families and working across time zones. “They are my brilliant and multilingual friends, mentors, role models, support network,” she wrote, urging news organisations to hire them.

The Washington Post is owned by Amazon boss and tech billionaire Jeff Bezos.

The scale of the cuts extends beyond the international desk.

Lee said more than a third of the Post’s newsroom, estimated at around 850 employees, has been eliminated, wiping out reporting capacity across regions from Kyiv and Moscow to Jerusalem, Delhi, China and Sydney.

She warned that the downsizing could leave the storied newspaper almost “unrecognisable”.

Calling the layoffs “unconscionable”, Lee said newsroom staff were bearing the cost of financial decisions they did not make. While expressing faith that the institution would eventually rebuild, she said the loss of colleagues had left a deep void. The GoFundMe campaign, she said, was a small but urgent step to support those navigating an uncertain future.