{"id":2225,"date":"2026-02-04T16:22:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/?p=2225"},"modified":"2026-02-04T16:55:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T16:55:25","slug":"legendary-newspaper-guts-its-sports-department","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/sports-media\/legendary-newspaper-guts-its-sports-department\/","title":{"rendered":"Legendary Newspaper Guts Its Sports Department"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s known for having one of the legendary newspaper sports section in the history of traditional media, and it is no more.\u00a0 <em>The Washington Post<\/em> announced Wednesday that it is shutting down its sports department, and has laid off almost its entire sports reporting staff.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement, made by <em>Post<\/em> executive editor Matt Murray, was first reported by one of his own sports columnists, Barry Svrluga.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;First, we will be closing the Sports department in its current form.&#8221; &#8212; Matt Murray, editor of the Post<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Barry Svrluga (@barrysvrluga) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/barrysvrluga\/status\/2019043168625504372?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 4, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Rumors of the <em>Post<\/em> shuttering its sports department first surfaced about a week ago, with many media members criticizing the newspaper for the possibility of dropping sports.\u00a0 The paper on January 24 announced they were not sending anyone to cover the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, but reversed course two days later, saying a four-person team would be going.<\/p>\n<p>Murray told staff that some sports reporters would remain with the paper, covering sports as a &#8220;cultural and societal phenomenon,&#8221; according to <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/maxwelltani\/status\/2019043586374013325\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Max Tani of Semafor<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>The Sports Page Of That Newspaper Was Legendary<\/h2>\n<p>It&#8217;s hard to argue there was a more important sports department in a newspaper than the one at\u00a0<em>The Washington Post<\/em>.\u00a0 The bylines in storylines reads like a Hall of Fame to great sports reporting: Shirley Povich, Thomas Boswell, David Remnick, Tony Kornheiser, Michael Wilbon, John Feinstein, Sally Jenkins, Christine Brennan, Richard Justice, and Rachel Nichols, among a myriad of others.\u00a0 They had great writers still: Chuck Culpepper, Chelsea Janes, Candace Buckner, Sam Fortier, Will Hobson, Neil Greenberg, and Mark Maske among them.\u00a0 The <em>Post <\/em>made sure their presence was felt at events throughout the country and around the world.\u00a0 The Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Final, the World Cup Final, the Olympics &#8212; if there was a big event, you&#8217;d find someone from the newspaper there.<\/p>\n<p>No longer.<\/p>\n<h2><em>Post<\/em> Staffers Announcing Their Layoff<\/h2>\n<p>Many of the sports staff at the <em>Post<\/em> took to social media Wednesday to announce they were caught in the culling.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I guess democracy has died, y\u2019all<\/p>\n<p>Well at least, the greatest sports section in all the land has\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Like so many of my amazingly talented friends &amp; colleagues, my time at the washington post is over. Inconceivable that this was the decision for our section. But onward.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Candace Buckner (@CandaceDBuckner) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CandaceDBuckner\/status\/2019065116113698884?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 4, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"zxx\" dir=\"ltr\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JeHWDzl3t7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/JeHWDzl3t7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MarkMaske (@MarkMaske) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarkMaske\/status\/2019048947596370332?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 4, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Some personal news: I\u2019m among today\u2019s <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/washingtonpost?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@washingtonpost<\/a> layoffs. It was a dream 11-year run as an investigative reporter focused on sports\u2014making billionaires tremble (or at least mildly annoying them and their lawyers.)<\/p>\n<p>A few highlights from the ride: \ud83e\uddf5<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Will Hobson (@TheWillHobson) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheWillHobson\/status\/2019049431551615240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 4, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It\u2019s official: my time with The Washington Post has come to an end\ud83d\udc94<\/p>\n<p>If any media outlet needs a data-driven sportswriter who can produce millions of page views let me know. March Madness is coming up.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Neil Greenberg (@ngreenberg) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ngreenberg\/status\/2019048595320881275?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 4, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s known for having one of the legendary newspaper sports section in the history of traditional media, and it is no more.\u00a0 The Washington Post announced Wednesday that it is shutting down its sports department, and has laid off almost its entire sports reporting staff. The announcement, made by Post executive editor Matt Murray, was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5660,"featured_media":2226,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[264,238],"tags":[75,470],"class_list":["post-2225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sports-media","tag-featured","tag-washington-post"],"modified_by":"Steve Carney","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5660"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2225"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2232,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2225\/revisions\/2232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}