Dear Reader,

It’s never good news when the people who do the news become the news. But The Washington Post announced yesterday that it was laying off a third of its workforce.

Among the casualties were reportedly:

• All of their Middle East correspondents and editors, as well as many international staff,

• All of their photojournalists, according to former Post editor Robert McCartney, and

• At least 14 climate journalists, according to reporter Sammy Roth — that’s three times bigger than our whole newsroom!

In a particular egregious instance, Lizzie Johnson, a wildfire reporter-turned-Ukraine Correspondent, announced that she was laid off in the middle of the warzone — with no power, no heat, or no running water.

This hits close to home for us because last year, with the support of the International Women’s Media Foundation and readers like you, we sent our Editor-at-Large KC Cheng on two separate assignments to Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, and the eastern frontlines of Ukraine.

We revealed how, despite being the country most hard-hit by Trump’s USAID cuts, local doctors are using innovative treatments to maximize the recovery of civilians and soldiers who have suffered life-threatening burns during Russia’s ongoing invasion, and we have more stories in the pipeline. This is something that corporate media doesn’t want you to know.

The Washington Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos, has embraced the Trump administration, financing the production of First Lady Melania Trump’s critically panned propaganda film and hundreds of data centers to meet the insatiable appetite for Generative AI slop. (Of course, Caroline O’Donovan, the beat reporter covering Amazon, was among those laid off yesterday.)

At a moment when regime-aligned media become more shallow, jingoistic, and insular, we cannot let this become the new normal.

The Xylom presents a radically different journalism model:

• We cover global health and environmental disparities — that’s the only way to fully bear witness to how Trump and friends are making the world (not just America!) poorer, sicker, and dirtier.

• We are not owned by billionaires, hedge funds, or corporations: As a non-profit, worker-led collective, we are accountable to nobody else but you. (We also reject any funds from Big Oil, Big Pharma, lobbyists, or politicians!)

• We do real reporting with real people: In 2025, our journalists have filed dispatches from South Texas to South Sudan, from Nepal to Ukraine. We forbid the use of Generative AI in any part of our reporting process.

Whether you start a monthly donation or make a one-time gift, your generosity allows us to keep sending KC and our award-winning team of contributors to cover countries, people groups, and issues that legacy media have abandoned, in addition to paying our editorial staff a living wage.

Our goal is to raise $7,500 from readers each month! What do you say?

Yes, count me in!

Thank you so much, and we stand in solidarity with all the journalists who are navigating this uncertain landscape.

With gratitude,
Laasya Shekhar
Managing Editor

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