Washington DC: The Washington Post has lost over 200,000 subscribers following billionaire owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ decision not to endorse any candidate in the upcoming November 5 US presidential election.
According to media reports, Bezos defended the move on Monday, calling it ‘right’ and ‘principled’ and also affirming that it was made internally without influence from either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.
American news agency NPR reported that by Monday afternoon, more than 200,000 digital subscribers had canceled their subscriptions, representing about 8 percent of the newspaper’s more than 2 million paid subscribers, including print.
Speaking to NPR, former Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli described the scale of cancellations as colossal and noted that many subscribers were unaware of the rationale behind the no-endorsement decision.
Marty Baron, another former Executive Editor of The Washington Post, expressed concerns about the timing, coming just weeks before a critical election. “There was no serious substantive discussion with the editorial board. The decision was evidently made for reasons other than principle,” he told NPR.
In a statement titled ‘Note from Our Owner,’ Bezos said that presidential endorsements do not influence elections but instead create a perception of bias. He called ending the practice a ‘principled decision’ but admitted it might have been better handled further from the election.
Bezos clarified that neither campaign was consulted or informed and denied any quid pro quo.
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