WaPo lays off staff from tech arm Arc XP

The following was sent out from Semafor:

The Washington Post has quietly laid off staff from Arc XP, the technology arm of the paper that Post leadership had previously considered selling or spinning off.

Last year, the Post declined offers to sell Arc XP, the company’s in house publishing tool and software business, saying it would instead invest $50 million in the business in 2023. But on August 22, the paper told several top marketing staffers, program managers, and product designers at Arc XP that the Post would be eliminating their roles in the coming weeks.

The move displeased staff, who have been furious with recurring layoffs at the paper over the past year. In a statement, the company’s union said it was frustrated with the cuts, saying the paper did not give staffers an explanation for why their roles were being eliminated. The union added that the cuts contradicted the paper’s previous claim that there would be no further layoffs this year.

“We are deeply frustrated to see the company continuing this harmful and ineffectual practice — which has been shown again and again to erode morale and productivity without actually saving money,” the Guild said in a statement to Semafor.