Washington Post Hit With Canceled Subscriptions, Resignations Over Non-Endorsement

A man walks past The Washington Post building in Washington in a file photograph. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Some subscribers have canceled their Washington Post subscriptions after owner Jeff Bezos decided the paper would not issue an endorsement in the upcoming election.

Hundreds of commenters on the paper’s website say they canceled their subscriptions because they’re upset the Post did not endorse a presidential candidate. Others took to social media to share screenshots confirming they canceled their subscriptions. Many say they were looking for an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump.

“You have done democracy and the free press a great disservice. I canceled my subscription,” one commenter said in an op-ed penned by Bezos defending his decision.

A number of commenters said they were also canceling subscriptions to Amazon Prime. Bezos founded Amazon and owns the most shares among shareholders.

Some commentators said they'll keep their subscriptions to support the Post’s journalists. Others said they agreed with Bezos.

“The stand not to endorse a candidate was the first breath of fresh air that I’ve seen from any of the major news publications,” one wrote.

The Post has reported that some of its staff had previously drafted an endorsement of Harris. The paper has only endorsed Democrat presidential candidates since it started issuing endorsements in 1976.

Bezos and newsroom leaders say the choice to refrain from endorsing Harris or Trump stemmed from a desire to restore trust in journalism and express confidence in the ability of readers to make up their own minds.

“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, ‘I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.’ None,” Bezos said. “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.”

After William Lewis, the Post’s publisher, first announced the move, there has been a “soaring number of subscribers visiting the customer account page that allows them to cancel their subscriptions,” the Post reported.

“As a privately held company, we don’t release our subscription numbers,” a spokeswoman for the Post told The Epoch Times in an email after being asked how many cancellations and new subscriptions the paper has logged since Lewis’s announcement.

Twenty-one Post columnists denounced the decision not to issue an endorsement. Opinion contributor Michele Norris and columnist Robert Kagan resigned over the action.

“The Washington Post’s decision to withhold an endorsement that had been written & approved in an election where core democratic principles are at stake was a terrible mistake & an insult to the paper’s own longstanding standard of regularly endorsing candidates,” Norris wrote on the social media platform X.

Three editorial board members have also resigned from the board, the Post reported. The board has 10 members. The three members say they’re staying at the paper for now in other roles.

Molly Roberts, one of the members, told the paper she stepped down from the board “because the imperative to endorse Kamala Harris over Donald Trump is about as morally clear as it gets.”