Washington Post Says It Will End Sunday Magazine, Eliminates 10 Staff Positions

After 36 years of publication, the last magazine issue will be released Dec. 25, 2022

By Maggie More

The Washington Post will publish the last issue of its Sunday magazine on Christmas Day, and has laid off the magazine's 10 staff members, the newspaper said Wednesday afternoon.

The Post announced the end of its magazine in an online article, citing an internal staff email from executive editor Sally Buzbee. The 10 magazine staff members were told about the end of the magazine in a meeting, the Post article said.

The Washington Post magazine was launched in 1986 as a new iteration of previous Sunday magazines, according to the paper. After 36 years of publication, the last magazine issue will be released Dec. 25, 2022.

The Washington Post Magazine has roughly 10,900 followers on Twitter, 91,433 followers on Facebook, and roughly 21,200 followers on Instagram. It has won a multitude of awards over the years, including several from the Society for News Design in April of this year, and a National Magazine Award in 2020 for a special issue about incarceration.

According to the Washington Post article, "Five of the 40 Washington Post stories that drew the most online readers over the past year were produced by the magazine."

D.C. residents took to Twitter after the news broke to lament the end of the magazine.

Many of them also questioned whether Date Lab -- the popular experimental blind-date romance column turned D.C. cultural staple -- would end along with the magazine.

According to Buzbee's email, quoted in the Post, the paper "will be shifting some of the most popular content, and adding more, in a revitalized Style section that will launch in the coming months." It was not immediately clear what popular content would make the cut.

The decision to end the magazine was made in part due to "economic headwinds," Buzbee was quoted as saying in the Post article.