06/02/2026

BIZ & FINANCE FRIDAY | FEB 6, 2026

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Washington Post slashes headcount, news coverage

Trump admin probes Nike

on alleged anti-white hiring bias

NEW YORK: Donald Trump’s administration asked an American court to enforce a subpoena on Nike on Wednesday as it pursues allegations that the sports giant’s employment practices discriminated against white people. Nike “failed to fully provide the information sought”, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said in a filing that asked a court in Missouri to enforce the subpoena. The filing cited 2024 charges from EEOC commissioner Andrea Lucas that Nike may have violated the law “by engaging in a pattern or practice of disparate treatment against white employees, applicants and training programmes” and by setting targets that 30% of Nike staff in senior position be held by racial and ethnic minorities. Trump promoted Lucas to chair of the EEOC in November after previously picking her as a commissioner during his first term in 2020. She has been an outspoken critic of programmes promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Nike described the EEOC’s action as a “surprising and unusual escalation”, saying it has had “extensive, good-faith” engagement on the inquiry. “We have shared thousands of pages of information and detailed written responses to the EEOC’s inquiry and are in the process of providing additional information,” Nike said in an e-mail to AFP. “We are committed to fair and lawful employment practices and follow all applicable laws, including those that prohibit discrimination,” the company said, adding that it believes its programmes comply with the law and that it will respond to the petition. Nike has at times marketed itself around social and political stances, unveiling major advertising campaigns centred on former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who protested racial discrimination in policing. A prominent 2018 Nike media campaign with Kaepernick won rave reviews from activists in the Black Lives Matter movement, and jeers from Trump and other conservatives. – AFP billion in the recently ended quarter as revenue from cloud computing soared 48% to US$17.7 billion. “We’re seeing our AI investments and infrastructure drive revenue and growth across the board,” Pichai said. Google’s core search and advertising business remained the primary revenue driver, generating US$82.3 billion, up from US$72.5 billion a year earlier. – AFP

this paper for generations and serve the millions who depend on Post journalism, then The Post deserves a steward that will,” the Washington Post Guild, another union that represents Post employees, said on X. The Post ’s White House staff said in a letter to Bezos last week that their most impactful coverage depends heavily on collaboration with teams at risk of job cuts and that a diversified newsroom is essential when the paper faces financial challenges. Murray said on Wednesday’s call that all Po st departments are impacted by the cuts. “Politics and government will remain our largest desk and will remain central to our engagement and subscriber growth,” Murray said. Bezos said at the time he bought the Post that he would preserve its journalistic tradition and would not lead its day-to-day operations. But there “will, of course, be change” over the coming years, Bezos added. Don Graham, the publisher of the paper between 1979 and 2000 and son of the late legendary Post

publisher Katharine Graham, posted on Facebook about the layoffs. “I am sad that so many excellent reporters and editors – and old friends – are losing their jobs. My first concern is for them; I will do anything I can to help. I will have to learn a new way to read the paper, since I have started with the sports page since the late 1940s,” Graham said. In recent years, the Post has clashed with some of its journalists, who have openly criticised Bezos after the newspaper decided not to endorse a candidate in the November 2024 US presidential election, leading to more than 200,000 people canceling their digital subscriptions. The newspaper, which appointed William Lewis as its CEO in early 2024, also revamped its opinion section last year, shifting its focus to “personal liberties and free markets”. “Today’s layoffs at the Post are a devastating setback for the scores of individual journalists affected and for the journalism profession,” National Press Club President Mark Schoeff Jr said in a statement. – Reuters

o Newspaper lays off a third of its employees amid mounting financial losses

WASHINGTON: The Washington Post , owned by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, began widespread layoffs on Wednesday that will drastically shrink the size of the storied newspaper and affect all departments, according to a recording of a company-wide call shared with Reuters. The cuts will impact a third of all employees, according to the newspaper’s spokesperson. The newsroom is losing “hundreds” of staffers, according to a spokesperson for the Washington-Baltimore News Guild union, which represents Post employees. Executive editor Matt Murray informed the staff of the reductions, which will impact the international, editing, metro and sports desks, and come just days after the newspaper, founded in 1877, scaled back its coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics amid mounting financial losses. “For too long, we’ve operated with a structure that’s too rooted in the days when we were a quasi-monopoly local newspaper,” Murray said on the call, adding that “we need a new way forward and a sounder foundation”. The Washington Post is undergoing wrenching changes to readership and revenue. Other large city daily newspapers, such as the Los Angeles Times , are struggling as consumers turn to social media for their main source of news. One Post reporter, speaking on condition of anonymity, called the newly announced layoffs a “bloodbath”. The impacted journalists include Amazon beat reporter Caroline O’Donovan, Cairo bureau chief Claire Parker and the rest of the Post ’s Middle East correspondents and editors, according to X posts from O’Donovan and Parker. “The Washington Post is taking a number of difficult but decisive actions today for our future, in what amounts to a significant restructuring across the company,” the newspaper said in a statement. “These steps are designed to strengthen our footing and sharpen our focus on delivering the distinctive journalism that sets The Post apart and, most importantly, engages our customers.” Bezos bought the newspaper in SAN FRANCISCO: Google parent Alphabet on Wednesday reported blockbuster earnings, its revenue climbing as it invests massively in cloud computing services enhanced with artificial intelligence. The tech giant said revenue jumped 18% year-on-year in the quarter, and overall annual revenue topped US$400 billion (RM1.6 trillion) for the first time at the company

2013 for US$250 million from the Graham family. News outlets have struggled for years to maintain a sustainable business model after the internet upended the economics of journalism. The Washington Post last year made changes across several business functions and announced job cuts, saying then that the reductions would not impact its newsroom. The newspaper had offered voluntary separation packages to employees across all functions in 2023 amid losses of US$100 million. Its 2025 paid average daily circulation was 97,000, with roughly 160,000 on Sundays, representing a steep decline from its 250,000 average daily circulation in 2020, according to the Alliance for Audited Media data. “If Jeff Bezos is no longer willing to invest in the mission that has defined

A view of the Washington Post office building in the American capital. – AFPPIC

Google’s annual revenue tops US$400 billion for first time founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. increase of 100 million from the previous quarter.

Despite Alphabet relentlessly investing in computing infrastructure for AI, demand outstrips supply, according to CEO Sundar Pichai. “We’ve been supply constrained even as we’ve been ramping up our capacity,” Pichai said on an earnings call. Google’s Gemini AI continued to grow quickly, ending the year with 750 million monthly users in an

“We expect Google to overtake OpenAI this year for the top spot in AI,” said Emarketer analyst Nate Elliott. Alphabet brought in US$113.8 billion in the final three months of 2025, powered by its core search business and cloud computing, earnings figures showed. Alphabet reported profit of US34.5

But Alphabet said it will nearly double its investments this year in the technology arms race gripping Silicon Valley. The company expects capital expenditures between US$175 billion and US$185 billion in 2026, double its 2025 spending, to meet customer demand for AI products.