136 Newspapers Closed in 2025. Congress Must Act.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

On February 5, The Washington Post fired one-third of its staff. The Ukraine correspondent got her layoff notice while reporting from an active warzone. Sports, books, foreign bureaus, every Middle East correspondent gone. Former executive editor Marty Baron called it among the darkest days in the paper’s 150-year history. Weeks earlier, owner Jeff Bezos paid $75 million for a Melania Trump documentary through Amazon. Forty million went directly to the Trump family. Bezos has gained $55 billion in personal wealth since 2024 and could cover the Post’s annual losses with a single week’s earnings. He chose to gut journalism while funding a presidential infomercial. Last year 136 newspapers closed. Billionaire media owners are learning they can trade newsroom jobs for political access without consequence. When corporations that depend on federal contracts and antitrust decisions control what Americans read, the free press becomes a bargaining chip. I urge you to hold hearings on how media consolidation threatens democracy, strengthen antitrust enforcement against companies using media ownership for political favors, and support the Local Journalism Sustainability Act before independent reporting disappears.