Politico: Washington Post to Hire Dozens of Journalists

The "profitable and growing" Washington Post plans to kick off the new year by adding dozens of journalists to its newsroom at a time when many newspapers across the nation are letting their reporters go.

During 2016, three years after Amazon owner Jeff Bezos bought The Post, it became the fourth-largest national newspaper company, ranked just after The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, thanks to an emphasis on investigative journalism increasingly delivered by more digital options, Politico reported Wednesday.

“We’re adding dozens of journalists,” Fred Ryan, the Post’s publisher and CEO, told Politico contributing writer Ken Doctor, following a memo to staffers last week where he said the paper is "profitable and growing."

“We looked at what succeeded for us in 2016 and made investments there,” Ryan commented to Politico, and while he did not specify how many people will be hired, as the paper is "rolling this out internally," Doctor estimated that according to sources, The Post's newsroom will likely grow by more than 60 jobs, or eight percent.

That would put The Post's newsroom at more than 750 journalists, or at third place and close to The New York Times, which employs 1,307. At USA Today, there are about 450 journaists, while The Wall Street Journal employs 1,500.

Ryan said there are further investments coming in mobile video, as "we believe that a less than 15-second pre-roll can be very effective."

In addition, The Post plans the addition of a "rapid-response" investigative team, with about a half-dozen reporters working with its investigative team, and to expand its breaking news team to meet the challenges of increased news coverage, especially with the beginning of President-elect Donald Trump's presidency. The budgeting for the new hires will begin on New Year's Day, with hiring to start after that.

The Post's new subscribers have increased by 75 percent since the beginning of 2016, and digital subscription revenues have doubled, potentially on the strength of a program that allows six-month free trial subscriptions, including on Amazon's Kindle devices. After that, the digital subscriptions cost about $36 a year.