The world-famous American media outlet, the Washington Post, has laid off more than 300 journalists and staff at once. The newspaper's management informed employees on Wednesday morning through a 'staff call' that it has cut about 30 percent of its workforce.

The newspaper, owned by Amazon founder and world's third-richest person Jeff Bezos, said the move was made due to the economic crisis and declining readership. 'This is a very painful and difficult day,' said executive editor Matt Murray, 'and we have had to make this unpleasant decision because we have not been able to change our model in a timely manner.' The Post is closing its sports desk and books section in the name of restructuring, the Columbia Journalism Review reported. The newspaper's podcast, 'Post Reports,' has also been suspended. Some sports reporters have been moved to the 'feature desk,' but most have lost their jobs. The international bureau has also been cut. Bureau chiefs and correspondents in India, the Gulf, Australia and Ukraine have been fired. Ukraine bureau chief Siobhan O'Grady and correspondent Lizzie Johnson are also among the journalists who have been fired. Bezos' decision and customer exodus The Post was embroiled in controversy a few months ago when owner Jeff Bezos blocked the editorial board's decision to support Kamala Harris in the US presidential election. More than 250,000 customers canceled their subscriptions to the Post after the decision. Employees say this has further worsened the organization's financial situation. Similarly, the news recently mentioned that generative AI (artificial intelligence) has caused online traffic to drop by almost half and that management's experiments with AI have also failed.