The Washington Post has said it is on track to break even this year.
A spokesperson for the title shared the overarching financial update as acting CEO and publisher Jeff D’Onofrio was named in the roles on a permanent basis.
D’Onofrio, formerly chief financial officer, took up leadership of the business in February. He succeeded Will Lewis who stepped down days after making more than 300 journalists redundant.
In a memo to staff, D’Onofrio said: “We have made significant progress together over the last seven months, but our work is never done. News and Opinions are at our gravitational centre, and our mission doesn’t change.
“What will change is that we will build a modern media company with new revenue streams that move us from break-even to profitability, so we can reinvest in our journalism.”
A Washington Post spokesperson said on Wednesday that the title is on track to break even and end 2026 “on its closest path to profitability in five years”.
The Washington Post began to lose money after years of profitability in 2022.
The title does not share actual subscriber numbers, but said on Wednesday it had sold more than 300,000 individual subscriptions so far in 2026.
The New York Times reported in March more than 60,000 Washington Post subscriptions were cancelled in response to the February job cuts, which included the closure of the books and sports departments and huge stripping back of the local and foreign desks. A Post spokesperson disputed that figure but did not share a different one, NYT reported.
The Washington Post said it has nonetheless produced more than 200 exclusives and scoops in 2026 so far including 35 in August which it said was the highest in a month since April 2020.
The last known Washington Post subscription figure is 2.5 million, dated October 2024.
The Washington Post also said its total audience reach had increased by 20% year on year in August.
However its website visits, according to Similarweb, were down by 17% year on year and 12% month on month to 53.7 million making it the 20th biggest news website in the US. It is not alone, as 41 of the 50 biggest news sites in the US saw a year-on-year drop in traffic in August and 40 were down compared to July.
Despite this The Washington Post said its programmatic advertising revenue has increased by 53% year on year in 2026.
It has also entered “multiple six-and-seven figure partnership contracts”.
D’Onofrio previously worked as chief financial officer of digital advertising company Raptive and CEO of publishing platform Tumblr.
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos said: “Over these months, I’ve heard from many that Jeff has been doing an outstanding job, and that’s been my experience as well. Jeff has led with discipline and care – following the data and sweating the details, and he has my complete confidence as we chart our future.”
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