The Washington Post fires nearly a third of its news staff

Feb. 4 (UPI) -- More than 300 reporters and others are being let go from The Washington Post amid financial troubles, the Jeff Bezos-owned company announced on Wednesday.

The firings amount to about a third of the total workers at the award-winning newspaper that once broke the Watergate break-in and other important news events.

"The Washington Post is taking a number of difficult but decisive actions today for our future in what amounts to restructuring across the company," a Washington Post spokesperson told NBC News.

In 2013, Amazon owner Bezos bought the newspaper, which had fired about 400 workers over the past three years, according to The Washington Post Guild, which represents the newspaper's staff.

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"These layoffs are not inevitable," the guild told NBC News. "A newsroom cannot be hollowed out without consequences to its credibility, its reach and its future."

The newspaper announced the layoffs during an 8:30 a.m. EST video conference that was organized by the newspaper's executive editor, Matt Murray, and its human resources department.

The changes include closing down most of its sports coverage, ending its daily podcast and ceasing its books-related section, according to CNN.

The layoffs likely will harm the Post's ability to effectively cover national politics, its Washington bureau chief, Matt Viser, and several capital reporters said in a letter to Bezos that was obtained by CNN.

"If the plan, to the extent there is one, is to reorient around politics, we wanted to emphasize how much we rely on collaboration with foreign, sports, local -- the entire paper, really," Viser and others said. "And if other sections are diminished, we all are."

The Post also is reducing its international news coverage. But some of its overseas bureaus will continue to operate.

Will Lewis, the newspaper's publisher and chief executive officer, has cited politics coverage and other important news as being more profitable than sports and international coverage.

The newspaper's former editor, Marty Baron, attributed the changes to "acute business problems that had to be addressed."

He called its downsizing "among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations" and faulted "ill-conceived decisions that came from the very top" for making matters worse.

Bezos last year revised the news outlet's opinions page to focus more on individual liberties and free markets after months earlier canceling a planned endorsement of then-Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

Some former employees have accused Bezos of making changes to prevent interference from President Donald Trump, but they did not explain their rationale.