Newspapers across the country have experienced a drop in website traffic and circulation since Donald Trump left office, but the declines at the Washington Post have been especially painful.

Post website traffic took a nosedive from about 140 million visits in April 2020, dropping pretty steadily to now less than 55 million, according to the most recent numbers obtained by City Paper, which are not published on the Post’s site. That’s a 60 percent drop in just a few years.

The decrease was so precipitous that the Post stopped sharing highlights of its web traffic with the public. A tab on the Post site that reads Audience & Traffic was updated consistently for several years. But about 15 months ago, the paper stopped disclosing those figures.

In the 11 years since Jeff Bezos bought the Post, he has said little publicly about his view of readership numbers, website traffic, or profitability generally. Current and former Posties often say that while Bezos’ wealth allows him to worry less about the bottom line than most corporations, he is also not obligated to run a charity.

David Mindich, a media and journalism professor at Temple University and the author of Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don’t Follow the News, says the “alarming” contractions in the industry are damaging newspapers. But he says “the election might end up being good for the Washington Post as the city becomes more central to our conversation.”

The Post officially declined to provide City Paper with the most up-to-date audience and readership figures, or comment specifically about its circulation and website traffic numbers.

According to publicly available data, Post website traffic dropped to 111 million in January 2021, 88 million in April 2021, 68 million in August 2022, 65 million in December 2022, and then hit 58 million in January 2023.

An internal “traffic sheet” obtained from a source with access to the numbers shows 55 million monthly web visits in February 2024, the paper’s lowest in several years. By comparison, the number of Post web visitors is below the New York Times (82 million), USA Today (63 million), and Forbes (60 million). And behind Vox Media, CBS, CNN, FOX, and others—all of which generate more website traffic than traditional print rivals.

It’s not just a decline in digital readers. Print circulation, the number of folks who buy the paper at a newsstand or have one delivered to their homes, has declined as well.

Most recent circulation numbers show that the Wall Street Journal remains the leader in print circulation, followed by the New York Times. The New York Post (disclosure, I worked there for six years) is now the No. 3 ranked newspaper in the country, having overtaken the Post, which fell to the fourth spot, according to the Alliance for Audited Media, a nonprofit that tracks media circulation. USA Today comes in at No. 5, followed by the LA Times and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Many other big city daily papers, from the Boston Globe, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, and Dallas Morning News, lag far behind the Post, but that’s not a lot of consolation for a company that retains a national ambition.

Many big newspapers, along with many regional and small papers, are losing circulation each year and trying desperately to replace those readers with digital ones—and with paying customers. That’s a challenge in an era when many younger news consumers rely on social media to stay informed.

Former Post media reporter Paul Farhi, who left the paper in 2023, has been documenting the trend for years. The prospects for turning young readers into paying subscribers is grim.

PR folks at the Post did not explain why the company stopped sharing digital audience data 15 months ago, nor did they have any comment on what the current numbers portend for the future.

Executive Editor Sally Buzbee did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Karl Wells, who became chief growth officer on Feb. 12—one of the first big announcements from Will Lewis since he took the helm as publisher late last year.

“Karl’s proven track record of establishing advantageous, comprehensive growth strategies is unrivaled in this industry and he is indeed a subscriptions wizard,” Lewis said of Wells in a press release. “His addition to our leadership team brings a deep knowledge of data-driven subscription businesses, a thorough understanding of audiences, and an expertise in maximizing revenue return through multiple streams.”

That seems to make Wells the point man for the Post’s efforts to grow, as his portfolio includes “cross-functional business growth, including subscription strategy, partnerships, licensing, and data and analytics.” 

And in an interview with Semafor’s Ben Smith, Lewis alluded to various subscription models and marketing tricks as potential solutions to turn the ship around. But the Post’s specific short- or long-term strategy to counter the downward trend remains unclear.

Wells, who made his chops in the British news industry like Lewis, worked for Dow Jones in New York, and will continue living there rather than moving to D.C., according to the Post—a revealing allowance by Lewis. Wells did not respond to requests for comment.

Declines in website traffic mean less revenue, but the news business is also vulnerable in other ways. Economic uncertainty can impact advertising spending, which damages another vital stream of revenue.

In the past year, NPR, the LA Times, the Post, and other news organizations announced buyouts or layoffs as their website traffic dropped and their revenue dipped. Some outlets closed altogether.

Many analysts suggest the past year has been among the worst ever recorded in the media industry, with a wide variety of factors impacting the cutbacks: There’s less Trump coverage, but many readers feel exhausted and are consuming less news. And the Post itself has acknowledged that many of the cutbacks were almost inevitable given the growth that surged during the Trump years.

To that end, the Nieman Lab recently wrote that “a greater sense of normalcy may be good for people’s mental health, but not news profits,” while noting the various ways in which the drop in news consumption is hurting newspapers.

Under former Post publisher Fred Ryan, who ran the paper for nine years prior to Lewis, the newsroom swelled from 580 to 1,000, before dropping back down to about 900 following the aggressive buyouts of December 2023. Under Ryan, the Post trumpeted international growth by noting plans to add 15 new positions overseas as it worked to publish breaking news around the clock. 

The new hires included a senior head of audience focused on international growth, visual reporters in both news hubs, global audience editors focused on search engine optimization, social media, and analytics, and two newsletter editors aimed at developing international audience growth through email, according to the Post.

As Lewis ushers the Post into what is widely viewed as one of the most bizarre national presidential campaigns ever, the paper will be under pressure for the marquee writers to help distinguish themselves and build the readership numbers back up.

Ironically, two of the biggest recent front page stories in the Post have been local: the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore and the flip-flop on the Wizards and Capitals leaving D.C. for Virginia.