The Washington Post shutting down its gaming division, announces 20 layoffs
Launcher arrived on the scene three years ago and focused on covering video games for what they are and can be while taking big interviews and engaged in ethical journalism.
The Washington Post has imposed layoffs on Tuesday, just a week after owner Jeff Bezos visited the Washington DC office. The layoffs were announced by Fred Ryan, publisher and CEO of the media outlet. Among the layoffs is Launcher which is The Washington Post’s gaming and esports section.
Launcher shut down by The Washington Post
Launcher arrived on the scene three years ago and focused on covering video games for what they are and can be while taking big interviews and doing ethical journalism. The Washington Post, as per Kotaku, will be reassigning some of Launcher’s members to other parts of the newsroom. All employees will remain employed until March 31 due to union contracts.
Still in a state of shock. The "sorry to hear what happened to Launcher!" slack messages starting coming in before my shift was even scheduled to start today, then received that email saying "we have reached out to those employees" affected by layoffs. they had, in fact, not 🙃
— Alyse Stanley (@pithyalyse) January 24, 2023
The Washington Post is laying off 20 people while they’re also choosing to leave 30 vacancies unfilled. That’s 50 positions eliminated from the publication. “We are also eliminating currently filled positions we concluded are not essential to serving our competitive needs,” executive editor Sally Buzbee wrote in a memo.
We’ll continue to hold the company accountable and fight these seemingly arbitrary terminations in every way we can — including helping our colleagues find other jobs within the newsroom and securing the severance packages they deserve.
— Washington Post Guild (@PostGuild) January 24, 2023
The Washington Post Guild, which looks after the interests of the employees rather than the management, shared more details on the matter. “We have received no clear explanation for why these layoffs had to happen, As far as we can tell, they are not financially necessary or rooted in any coherent business plan from our publisher, who has said that he expects the company to be larger a year from now.”
Today, we came into WaPo’s so-called town hall with questions about recent layoffs and the future of the company.
— Washington Post Guild (@PostGuild) December 14, 2022
Our publisher dropped a bombshell on us by announcing more layoffs and then walking out, refusing to answer any of our questions. pic.twitter.com/ajNZsZKOBr
Today, we came into WaPo’s so-called town hall with questions about recent layoffs and the future of the company.
— Washington Post Guild (@PostGuild) December 14, 2022
Our publisher dropped a bombshell on us by announcing more layoffs and then walking out, refusing to answer any of our questions. pic.twitter.com/ajNZsZKOBr
This isn’t the first layoff news in recent times when it comes to gaming. There have been layoffs at IGN, GameSpot, Giant Bomb, Game Informer, Fanbyte and more. Meanwhile, the video game industry has been projected to grow into a $300 billion industry before 2030.