Jeff Bezos attends Washington Post morning editorial meeting as staff brace for ... trends now
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Jeff Bezos made a surprise appearance at a Washington Post editorial meeting on Thursday morning for the first time in over a year.
His attendance in-person sparked fears among staff about the severity of upcoming layoffs by the newspaper, which he bought in 2013 with ambitions to drive it into the digital era.
In recent years the Washington Post has suffered dwindling ad revenue, a decline in site traffic and a shortage of new subscribers. Last month, its publisher Fred Ryan announced that layoffs were coming in the new year.
Despite his suggestion the cuts would likely only affect a 'single-digit percentage' of its 2,500-person workforce, the news triggered a frenzy among staff and the paper's union membership grew.
Its union guild said it now has about 670 members, roughly 67 percent of those eligible, and that around 60 of those joined since the announcement in December.
Staff have been provided with little information about the layoffs and last month the Amazon CEO refused to comment on them, which meant his visit on Thursday only heightened panic.
Jeff Bezos (pictured here during a visit in 2016) made a surprise appearance at a Washington Post editorial meeting on Thursday morning for the first time in over a year
His attendance in-person sparked fears among staff about the severity of upcoming layoffs within newspaper, which he bought in 2013
'[People] don't know what to make of it,' one journalist told The Daily Beast.
During the meeting Bezos remained fairly
