Jeff Bezos defends Washington Post layoffs, reveals why he refuses to subsidize unprofitable paper

Billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos on Wednesday responded to criticism of the brutal round of layoffs at his paper earlier this year, saying it needs to maintain relevancy and turn a profit regardless of his wealth.Several departments were gutted, including its sports, metro and books sections, as well as its foreign correspondents and photojournalists.The massive headcount reduction stunned the media industry, although the paper’s heavy financial losses were no secret.Bezos sat down with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, who bluntly asked, “The company laid off about 30 percent of its staff, and there are a lot of people out there who said, ‘Jeff’s super wealthy, he’s talked about this being a public trust, something that he bought early on, how much you care about that piece of it.

Why lay people off? Why fire people? Why don’t you subsidize the business?”“The Post needs to be a profitable enterprise that stands on its own two feet,” Bezos shot back.The Amazon founder is among the world’s richest men with an estimated net worth of around $270 billion, according to Forbes.“But does it? Some people say it should be a trust,” Sorkin said.“Let me tell you why.

It’s a measure of its relevance.If people won’t pay for our product, it’s not a good enough product,” Bezos said.“It would be like poetry without rhyming.

It’s too easy,” Bezos added.“So, it’s got to be something that people will pay for, because that’s a signal.

It’s a signal that we’re providing a relevant service.”Bezos then pointed out that The New York Times, where Sorkin also serves as a financial columnist, makes “a ton of money.”“You guys are doing very well financially, and you’re providing a service that people are willing to pay for.We can do that, too,” Bezos said.“And guess what I told them when we were planning those layoffs.

I didn’t pick who was going to get laid off or which departments.I said, ‘Follow the data,�...