Washington Post Subscription Cancellations Hit 250K

A full 10% of the Washington Post's subscribers, which numbered 2.5 million prior to the newspaper's announcement that it would not endorse a presidential candidate, have canceled their subscriptions in the wake of the announcement. Sources on Tuesday told NPR more than 250,000 people have ended their subscriptions so far; on Monday, the number had been reported to be 200,000. Employees can no longer view the subscriber dashboard, which is apparently how the sources previously came by the numbers, the Guardian reports. The Los Angeles Times, which is undergoing its own similar controversy, has also lost subscribers since deciding not to endorse a presidential candidate, the newspaper reports.

Post owner Jeff Bezos defended the decision as one that would help the paper earn back trust with the public, who, he says, tend to believe the media is biased. But count iconic Post alums Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein among those who disagree with him: The reporters who broke the Watergate story released a joint statement Tuesday denouncing the decision, which, they argue, "ignores the [newspaper's] own overwhelming reportorial evidence on the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy." (Meanwhile, a chain of more than 200 newspapers just announced its papers will also refrain from endorsing a presidential candidate.)