WaPo union urges staffers to appeal to Jeff Bezos's wife in bid to avoid layoffs: report

The Washington Post’s mega-billionaire owner Jeff Bezos is reportedly set to unleash painful job cuts at the newspaper, but staffers are being encouraged to appeal to an even higher power in hopes of saving their jobs — his wife.The union representing staffers at the Washington Post is urging its membership to tag both Bezos and his glamorous spouse Lauren Sánchez in social media posts in hopes of getting their attention, according to the Status newsletter.“If you’re comfortable, please tag Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sánchez, sources with large followings — anyone who might be able to amplify our message and make sure it reaches those who need to hear it,” the Washington-Baltimore News Guild told its membership in an email obtained by Status.As of Tuesday, no Washington Post employees tagged Sánchez on their posts.The guild’s official social media accounts had also not tagged her.Newsroom employees are feeling a sense of urgency in light of anticipated layoffs that could impact more than 100 colleagues and may be announced as soon as next month.The cuts are likely to hit the sports, metro and foreign desks the hardest — with some reports suggesting that the Washington Post may do away with its sports section entirely after it canceled plans to send a contingent of reporters to the Winter Olympics in Italy next month.The situation is so dire that some Washington Post staffers have even raised the possibility of enlisting A-list celebrities to their cause, including award-winning actors Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, Status reported.Hanks, who recorded a Super Bowl commercial for the newspaper in 2019, portrayed the late executive editor Ben Bradlee and Streep played publisher Katharine Graham in the 2017 film “The Post,” which was directed by Steven Spielberg.Sánchez began her career as a desk assistant in Los Angeles before rising to on-air roles as an anchor and reporter in Phoenix, then returning to Southern California to work for outlets including K...