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Funds have continued to pour in to support workers affected by layoffs at The Washington Post, raising more than $700,000 across two GoFundMe campaigns.
The layoffs were announced last Wednesday, and within one day, a GoFundMe page had raised $350,000 for laid-off staff. Five days on, and around 4,700 supporters have donated over $520,000 to this page.
The GoFundMe, which launched just a few hours after company executives began cutting workers, was organized by Post reporter Rachel Siegel and other members of the newsroom's union.
A separate GoFundMe page for the Post's international employees has also raised almost $200,000 with about 2,100 donations.
The fundraising push for international staff was set up by the Post's Tokyo bureau chief, Michelle Lee. The funds will be disbursed to laid-off international employees who are not covered by the newsroom's union.
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According to the newsroom's union, the cut has affected hundreds of jobs at the organization. Post owner and Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, has drawn significant criticism over his stewardship of the company in the last few days. In a statement this weekend, he said: "The Post has an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity."
"Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus."
Kara Swisher, the tech journalist and ex-Post employee, gave $10,000 to the page set up for laid-off staff.
The former Washington Post executive editor, Martin Baron, appeared to have donated $9,000 in total, comprising $4,000 for the international staff GoFundMe and $5,000 for the general one.
Other top donors appeared to include longtime former and current staffers Dan Balz, Eugene Robinson, and Lois Romano.
Business Insider's Dan Whateley and Sydney Bradley previously reported that the amount of money in the fundraisers and the speed at which they hit six figures make them outliers among media layoff fundraisers.
Laid-off staffers at Vox Media pulled in about $7,000 in their January GoFundMe, while Teen Vogue got about $41,000 after November layoffs.
"Post Guild members have come together to support their colleagues with this GoFundMe," said a spokesperson for the Washington Baltimore News Guild last week.
The spokesperson blamed "inexcusable business decisions of top Post leadership" for the cuts.
"The Washington Post is taking a number of difficult but decisive actions today for our future, in what amounts to a significant restructuring across the company," a Post spokesperson said last week in a statement on the layoffs.
"These steps are designed to strengthen our footing and sharpen our focus on delivering the distinctive journalism that sets The Post apart and, most importantly, engages our customers."