One day after the Washington Post laid off roughly a third of its newsroom, former staff and supporters gathered outside the paper’s Downtown D.C. headquarters to protest the cuts.
The rally is organized by the Post News Guild and the Post Tech Guild l unions. The crowd listens as journalists and tech workers describe the impact of losing hundreds of colleagues.
D.C. communities reporter Michael Brice-Saddler tells the rally the Metro section staff can no longer adequately serve the region.
(WTOP/Mike Murillo )
WTOP/Mike Murillo
The rally is organized by the Post News Guild and the Post Tech Guild l unions.
The rally is organized by the Post News Guild and the Post Tech Guild l unions. The crowd listens as journalists and tech workers describe the impact of losing hundreds of colleagues.
Protesters outside of the Washington Post office demonstrate following a mass layoff, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington.
(AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
AP Photo/Allison Robbert
Protesters outside of the Washington Post office take flyers following a mass layoff, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington.
(AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
AP Photo/Allison Robbert
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Laid‑off Washington Post staff rally outside DC headquarters after massive cuts
One day after the Washington Post laid off roughly a third of its newsroom, former staff and supporters gathered outside the paper’s Downtown D.C. headquarters to protest the cuts.
Former transportation reporter Rachel Weiner, who spent 15 years at the Post, told the large crowd she was struggling with the loss of her job and what it meant for the community.
“Yeah, I’m sad about it obviously,” she said. “It is really disappointing having worked to cover as much as possible in this region because it’s also important. The Post has just decided it doesn’t matter to them.”
Weiner said this round of cuts was handled differently from past layoffs.
“They did something they haven’t done in previous layoffs and buyouts, which is you lock us out of the building and the systems immediately and not let us finish anything we were working on,” Weiner said.
The rally was organized by the Post News Guild and the Post Tech Guild unions. The crowd listened as journalists and tech workers described the impact of losing hundreds of colleagues.
D.C. communities reporter Michael Brice-Saddler told the rally the Metro section staff could no longer adequately serve the region.
“How is the Metro desk supposed to earn the community’s trust if you keep taking resources away from the Metro section of this paper?” he said.
The newspaper also eliminated its entire sports department.
Speaking for her colleagues, former sports reporter Molly Hensley‑Clancy said the loss of the desk was both “heartbreaking” and “senseless.”
“There’s nothing as riveting as sports, and there’s nothing that brings all of America together like sports,” she said.
She continued, “There is simply is no Washington Post without sports.”
Former enterprise reporter Marissa J. Lang, who was also laid off, said the full impact of losing so many journalists will ripple far beyond the newsroom.
“I don’t think we know yet the impact of losing 300 journalists who hold power to account,” she told the crowd. “I know that the region and the country and the world is a worse place today for having lost all of these incredible reporters.”
The rally also drew former staff who were not part of this week’s layoffs but came to support their colleagues. Among them was Kathryn Tolbert, who worked at the paper for 27 years before retiring a few years ago.
“It’s heartbreaking the way the heart and soul of the paper are being torn apart,” Tolbert said. “This feels different in a really fundamental way.”
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