No endorsement

[Piano*Dad]

I canceled today. Told 'em why. Not that it'll matter.

[wtg]

The Washington Post has been rocked by a tidal wave of cancellations from digital subscribers and a series of resignations from columnists, as the paper grapples with the fallout of owner Jeff Bezos’s decision to block an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

More than 200,000 people had canceled their digital subscriptions by midday Monday, according to two people at the paper with knowledge of internal matters. Not all cancellations take effect immediately. Still, the figure represents about 8% of the paper’s paid circulation of 2.5 million subscribers, which includes print as well. The number of cancellations continued to grow Monday afternoon.

A corporate spokesperson declined to comment, citing The Washington Post Co.'s status as a privately held company.

“It’s a colossal number,” former Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli told NPR. “The problem is, people don’t know why the decision was made. We basically know the decision was made but we don’t know what led to it.”

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/28/nx-s1-5168416/washington-post-bezos-endorsement-president-cancellations-resignations

[Mik]

Is there anyone who isn’t offended by the choice we are presented with? That’s the message here.

[wtg]

Bezos' op-ed. I don't think it's behind a paywall, as I was able to get to it directly on their site without a subscription.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/28/jeff-bezos-washington-post-trust/

[CHAS]

Cancelled my subscription

[wtg]

It's worth reading.

[Steve Miller]

@Mik

Yeah, me.

I think Harris is an excellent choice.

[Mik]

Who's choice is she? No one voted for her. She was appointed.

[Lisa]

Mik - everyone who voted for Biden implicitly also voted for Harris last time. If Biden kicked the bucket tomorrow, she'd be president as the result of that vote. I'm a Dem and I'm not offended at not having had the chance to vote for my party's candidate in the primary - heck, by the time PA gets around to holding their primary election, the candidate has already been chosen anyway, so I never get a say in the presidential primary ever - it's no different this time. But for what it's worth, I would have had no issue voting for her - I've been way unhappier with the folks chosen for me by Iowa, NH, and SC in the past........

Oh and I did cancel my WaPo sub on Saturday. I always talked them down to a $29 rate for the year so I doubt they'll miss me much, but screw them. "Democracy dies in darkness" my ass.

[Steve Miller]

“Anticipatory Obedience”.

Everyone is falling nicely in line.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/26/anticipatory-obedience-newspapers-endorsement-refusal

[Rontuner]

Instead of canceling WaPo, Cancel Amazon if you want to make a statement... And no, I'm not the least bit offended by being able to vote for Harris.

[Lisa]

It's not even like I'm canceling to stick it to Jeff (like I said, I don't think my $29/year is gonna make a difference - he probably makes more than that every millisecond just by existing).

I'm canceling because I'm paying for trustworthy reporting and I don't think they are delivering that anymore. When a newspaper can't do it's one and only job, it's time to find a better newspaper.

[Piano*Dad]

I'm one of the (now) 250,000 who have cancelled.

I get the idea of canceling Amazon, but I don't think that that sends much of a signal. First, it's a drop in a bucket. Second, it's not tied to his ownership of a Newspaper.

[Piano*Dad]

[pedant hat on] People are using the word decimate to describe the cancellations. This is one of the few times that the word is used accurately. To decimate is to reduce by 10%. [pedant hat off]

[Steve Miller]

It’s close. I’ve seen estimates of 8%.