via Latest & Breaking News on Fox News <p>Billionaire Washington Post owner <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/person/jeff-bezos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jeff Bezos</a> on Wednesday responded to criticism of the brutal round of layoffs at his paper earlier this year, saying it needs to maintain relevancy and turn a profit regardless of his wealth.</p><p>Several departments were gutted, including its sports, metro and books sections, as well as its foreign correspondents and photojournalists. The <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-post-staffers-feeling-betrayed-turmoil-looming-layoffs-rock-newsroom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">massive headcount reduction stunned</a> the media industry, although the paper's heavy financial losses were no secret.</p><p>Bezos sat down with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, who bluntly asked, "The company laid off about 30 percent of its staff, and there are a lot of people out there who said, ‘Jeff’s super wealthy, he’s talked about this being a public trust, something that he bought early on, how much you care about that piece of it. Why lay people off? Why fire people? Why don’t you subsidize the business?"</p><p>"The Post needs to be a profitable enterprise that stands on its own two feet," Bezos shot back. The Amazon founder is among the world’s richest men with an estimated net worth of around $270 billion, according to Forbes.</p><p><a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-posts-daily-digital-reader-base-shrunk-during-biden-years-nearly-90-internal-data-reveals" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>WASHINGTON POST’S DAILY DIGITAL READER BASE SHRUNK DURING BIDEN YEARS BY NEARLY 90%, INTERNAL DATA REVEALS</strong></a></p><p>"But does it? Some people say it should be a trust," Sorkin said.</p><p>"Let me tell you why. It’s a measure of its relevance. If people won’t pay for our product, it’s not a good enough product," Bezos said.</p><p>"It would be like poetry without rhyming. It’s too easy," Bezos added. "So, it’s got to be something that people will pay for, because that’s a signal. It’s a signal that we’re providing a relevant service."</p><p>Bezos then pointed out that <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/organization/the-new-york-times" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a>, where Sorkin also serves as a financial columnist, makes "a ton of money."</p><p><a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/bezos-defends-wapo-ending-presidential-endorsements-right-choice-im-very-proud-decision" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>BEZOS DEFENDS WAPO ENDING PRESIDENTIAL ENDORSEMENTS AS THE 'RIGHT' CHOICE: 'I'M VERY PROUD OF THE DECISION'</strong></a></p><p>"You guys are doing very well financially, and you’re providing a service that people are willing to pay for. We can do that, too," Bezos said.</p><p>"And guess what I told them when we were planning those layoffs. I didn’t pick who was going to get laid off or which departments. I said, ‘Follow the data,’" Bezos continued. "Follow the data, and I said there is one exception to this… don’t follow the data on investigative reporting."</p><p>Bezos said the "<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/jeff-bezos-tenure-washington-post-owner-spotlight-paper-grapples-low-morale-staffer-exodus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">heart of the Post</a> is investigative reporting," and suggested the unit will continue to thrive.</p><p>"Our newsroom today, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-post-shed-roughly-half-its-staffers-recent-years" target="_blank" rel="noopener">after the layoffs, is still</a> larger than when we did Watergate and the Pentagon Papers," Bezos said. "The Post is going to continue to be an important institution, in fact, it’s going to be a more important institution because of this financial discipline."</p><p><a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><strong>CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE</strong></a></p><p>Bezos pointed to a recent Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, which is considered the most prestigious of awards. The Post won the 2026 edition for in-depth coverage of the Trump administration's efforts to transform the federal government.</p><p>"It needs to be relevant to readers, it needs to stand on its own two feet," Bezos said.</p><p>Sorkin also asked Bezos point-blank if he wanted to own the paper.</p><p>"Do you want to own it? And the reason I ask is you’ve talked about how you are, by default, to some degree a conflicted owner, given you own all of these other businesses," the CNBC host asked.</p><p>"When I bought The Post, it was very unprofitable when I brought it. The newsroom was even smaller than it is today. We turned it around in two years, it was profitable for six years. I put all that money back in The Post and grew the newsroom, so we’ve shrunk it back some now. But we haven’t shrunk it back to what it was when I bought it," Bezos responded.</p><p>He said the Post didn't adapt, and the news environment has changed a lot over the years.</p><p>Bezos bought the Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million. The paper thrived during the first Trump administration, but it has struggled in recent years with subscriber losses and bruising layoffs.</p><p>Bezos took particular heat in 2024 when he yanked the liberal <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-post-reports-liberals-are-canceling-subscriptions-over-papers-decision-not-endorse-vp-harris" target="_blank" rel="noopener">editorial board's planned endorsement</a> of Kamala Harris, shortly before her loss to President Donald Trump.</p>