Tension in Washington Post It escalated Tuesday after a companywide meeting aimed at clearing up dissent over the paper’s lack of presidential approval backfired internally.

NPR reported The Post has lost more than 250,000 subscribers on Tuesday since its editorial board announced last week that it would not officially endorse a presidential candidate, although it planned to support Harris. The decision caused immediate uproar in the newspaper “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” At least two members of the Post’s staff resigned from the newspaper, while two others remained on staff and left the editorial board. Washington Post journalists are reportedly worried that the sudden loss of subscribers could lead to layoffs.

The paper’s editor-in-chief, Matt Murray, addressed the canceled subscriptions at a staff meeting Tuesday afternoon, telling employees he could not provide the number of canceled subscriptions because he was unaware of the total amount to date. meeting, he told Fox News Digital.

WAPO EMPLOYEES MAY RECOVER UNSAFE PAPER AS BEZOS-OWNED OUTLET LOST 250,000 SUBSCRIBERS AT ITS APPROVAL PRICE

WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 3: Washington Post top editor Matt Murray is holding a staff meeting on June 3, 2024. ((Photo: Robert Miller/The Washington Post via Getty Images))

According to the source, Murray’s feigned ignorance infuriated employees; Murray was accused of lying to hundreds of reporters to save his reputation.

“Nobody believes a word he says he doesn’t know the subscriptions are unbelievable,” the insider said. “He stated that he was afraid of leaks… be honest (he might say): ‘I know the number, it’s not very good but I hope it stabilizes etc.'”

At another point in the meeting, Murray apologized for the incident. Reaction to approval decision “It’s done, it’s done,” a person told Fox News Digital.

BEFORE THE DISCONFIRMATION DECISION, THE WASHINGTON POST CALLED TRUMP ‘TERRIBLE’ AND THE ‘WORST PRESIDENT EVER’

Murray said he doesn’t want to know the number of canceled subscriptions because he believes they will recover over time. He acknowledged the losses were “significant” and predicted a “bumpy” road ahead, but said he had not been informed of any layoffs or downsizing in the near future.

The source said his attempt to reassure an angry newsroom was “unsatisfactory and only made things worse.”

Three Post reporters wrote in an op-ed Sunday that positive internal momentum in employment venues “came to a halt” on Friday when the newspaper announced it would not support a presidential candidate. Since then, it has been inundated with readers. social media Canceling subscriptions in protest caused Washington Post reporters to worry about how many subscribers would eventually leave.

Billionaire and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos recently explained in his column why his newspaper is not supporting a presidential candidate this year.

“A cancel movement spread across social networks. Instead of using an internal analytics tool to control traffic to their own stories, some Post journalists used it to chart the growing number of subscribers visiting the customer account page that allowed them to cancel their subscriptions.” Post reporters Manuel Roig-Franzia, Herb Scribner and Laura Wagner I wrote it in one piece It was titled “More outrage from readers who say they’re canceling for The Post.”

A pitch for Harris was reportedly drafted and ready to be released before it was abruptly shelved last Friday. The newspaper, which has been reliably hostile to former President Trump for years, endorsed Democrat Except for skipping an election in 1988, he has been nominated for president in every election since 1976.

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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who bought the newspaper in 2013, wrote an op-ed defending The Post’s decision, insisting that the newspaper’s endorsements “will not change the scale of the election” but instead “create the perception of bias.” He doubled down on The Post’s decision to end its presidential endorsements, saying it was “a principled decision and the right decision.”

The staff meeting came a day after former WaPo executive editor Marty Baron, who held Murray’s post for almost a decade before retiring in 2021, torched Bezos. “He betrays the principles he believes in” and called the disapproval a “serious mistake” that “did great harm to the Washington Post’s brand.”

The Washington Post did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News’ David Rutz contributed to this report.