The Washington Post has thrown in the towel on its streaming television aspirations.
The newspaper shut down its free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel earlier this month, pulling it from a number of leading platforms and allowing its contract with Amagi to expire, The Desk learned this week.
No reason was given for the winding down of the channel, which offered short video packages of top stories and replays of Washington Post-produced documentaries alongside an “L-bar” style ticker of headlines and a QR code to the daily electronic edition of the newspaper.
Washington Post TV originally launched on Amazon’s free streaming platform Freevee in May 2023. In a statement at the time, Washington Post Director of Video Micah Gelman said the FAST channel would allow the newspaper to “reach audiences who are increasingly looking online to get their news and entertainment.”
Over time, the channel became more widely distributed across other platforms, including Amazon’s Prime Video, Allen Media’s Local Now and on the newest line-up of Tablo DVRs.
But it became clear that Washington Post TV was seen as a lower priority over time: When more than 700 journalists went on strike in December, Washington Post TV suffered a glitch that caused the daily edition QR code to break — and it wasn’t fixed for several days.
The last major initiative for Washington Post TV was the newspaper’s Election Night coverage last November, which was simulcast on YouTube and other social media platforms. The newspaper continues to produce short news packages and live events that are distributed on its website, YouTube and Facebook.
The Washington Post has experience significant changes from within its own newsroom in the months since the election. In January, the company laid off 100 workers, representing around 4 percent of its workforce throughout different business units; a spokesperson said the layoffs did not affect its newsroom.
At the same time, a number of high-profile departures within its newsroom led to a memo circulated earlier this month that said the Washington Post was revamping its editorial operations to draw in a wider audience of readers. A report from Axios said two new divisions would be created — one focused on national reporting, the other on government and politics — and it wasn’t clear from the article how video factored into the equation.
On Thursday, a few hours after this story was first published, a spokesperson for the Washington Post said the newspaper “is continuing to prioritize and evolve our video efforts to meet our users where they are,” and offered a number of examples to this effect, including its production of vertical videos that play in an aspect ratio native to smartphones and the launch of “personality-driven video series” and podcasts.
The spokesperson said the FAST channel in question actually shut down during the third quarter (Q3) of last year, though a direct stream offered by Amagi was accessible when The Desk viewed it earlier this month.
The shutting down of Washington Post TV marks the latest example of a news brand restructuring its streaming operation to involve fewer resources and programming.
Last September, the E. W. Scripps Company announced it would stop offering its Scripps News channel on free broadcast TV, relaunching the brand as a streaming-only channel with significantly fewer employees. The change was made in mid-November.
Cheddar, a financial news channel owned by Altice, has also laid off workers and lowered its output of live TV programming over the past few years.
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Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify the layoffs within the Washington Post in January did not affect its newsroom, per a spokesperson; an earlier version of the story said the layoffs impacted workers across different editorial units, including video. The update also included additional context on the newspaper’s video efforts moving forward.
