Washington Post subscription
Shares rank 11 of 15 online magazines by recommenders
Recommended for strong DC political coverage and good journalism; the most common caveat is owner Jeff Bezos interfering with editorial decisions.
Recommended for strong DC political coverage and good journalism; the most common caveat is owner Jeff Bezos interfering with editorial decisions.
62 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 54
- approval share
- 13%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 9 years
Median of the 4 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Strong DC political coverage
“Washington Post has always been very strong covering US Politics in DC.”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “How Jeff Bezos Brought Down the Washington Post” “They historically had the best political coverage of DC.”
Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “How Jeff Bezos Brought Down the Washington Post” Among few quality news sources
“some of the least worst news sources remaining, once in a while”
Comment from 10 Jul 2026 in “Is The Economist Always Wrong?” “Some of the few quality media companies”
Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Ban HN posts with links behind paywalls – YES or NO?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Owner meddling in editorial
“They (reportedly) left in droves after Bezos interfered to stop the opinion board from endorsing a candidate and more recently fired nearly all international reporters.”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “Jeff Bezos Upended the Washington Post” “Bezos interfered and forbade it. There was no "choice" about it at all and that's why I (40+ year subscriber) unsubscribed.”
Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “How Jeff Bezos Brought Down the Washington Post” “People don't like overt control of editorial by a billionaire owner obviously seeking to curry favor with the WH”
Comment from 5 Feb 2026 in “How Jeff Bezos Brought Down the Washington Post” - Comment from 9 Oct 2026 in “Iranian campaign planted fake articles in real U.S. publications using ChatGPT”
- Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Washington Post begins widespread layoffs”
- Comment from 28 May 2026 in “AWS Fired the One Employee Who Gave a Damn”
- Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “The sad and self-inflicted decline of the Washington Post, in one chart”
Declining reporting quality
“At some point the paper stopped covering the business of congress and the federal government with regularity.”
Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “How Jeff Bezos Brought Down the Washington Post” “Reporting is mediocre, photojournalism is forgettable, and the opinion section is absolute garbage.”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “Jeff Bezos Upended the Washington Post” “Continuing the trajectory it has been on in the last two years will mean shuddering the paper”
Comment from 15 Mar 2026 in “Jeff Bezos Upended the Washington Post” - Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “How Jeff Bezos Brought Down the Washington Post”
- Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Google Handed ICE Student Journalist's Bank and Credit Card Numbers”
Perceived political bias
“They produce outstanding journalism with the exception of their Zionist pro-war bias”
Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “How Jeff Bezos Brought Down the Washington Post” “He might have bought the Washington Post as a vanity project, but that has not stopped him as using it as a propaganda tool.”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Blue Origin's New Glenn blows up during static fire test” “they are very much manipulated by what their billionaire owners want you to know”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “When Virality Is the Message: The New Age of AI Propaganda”
Other online magazines people recommend
The four most recommended other online magazines, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Economist | 87 | 75 | 54% | 12 | 10 yrs11 owners | — |
| New York Times subscription | 68 | 190 | 26% | 12 | 10 yrs8 owners | — |
| LWN.net subscription | 53 | 14 | 79% | 11 | 22 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Quanta Magazine | 36 | 20 | 64% | 11 | — | — |
| Washington Post subscriptionThis page | 8 | 54 | 13% | 5 | 9 yrs4 owners | — |
What people said
40 of the 66 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“he started clearly messing with editorial decisions and I bailed. It's now a garbage source.”
“That's a couple thousand dollars a year, just to have a handful of mainstream news sites.”
“Bezos corrupted and destroyed that once great institution”
“I was considering dropping my Washington Post subscription”
“some of the least worst news sources remaining, once in a while”
“The Washington Post is about as trustworthy as Fox News.”
“Washington Post is owned by Bezos, so at best center-right”
“As a mouthpiece of Jeff's interest in maintaining his wealth and power”
“there was no button anywhere in the settings menu though, only: text if you want your data deleted”
“He might have bought the Washington Post as a vanity project, but that has not stopped him as using it as a propaganda tool.”
“personally censoring the editorial team and/or firing large numbers of journalists”
“they are very much manipulated by what their billionaire owners want you to know”
“you'll still be informed about what matters but not manipulated so much that it gives you anxiety”
“Bezos seems to be taking WaPo down the path of collaborator”
“they are FILLED with ads/popups/videos that run automatically/dark patterns”
“Continuing the trajectory it has been on in the last two years will mean shuddering the paper”
“It was nothing but left wing propaganda before he bought it”
“They (reportedly) left in droves after Bezos interfered to stop the opinion board from endorsing a candidate and more recently fired nearly all international reporters.”
“Reporting is mediocre, photojournalism is forgettable, and the opinion section is absolute garbage.”
“This behavior is shitty enough to cancel WaPo subscription”
“Well this should be banned. Or at least watpo should be required to be transparent about this whenever you subscribe”
“Not a great look for a newspaper that positions itself as a public service.”
“tried cheap "day pass" subscriptions and they didn't really work”
“It is unfortunate to see the Washington Post decline in reliability like this.”
“What a low quality article with zero new information or insights.”
“People don't like overt control of editorial by a billionaire owner obviously seeking to curry favor with the WH”
“Washington Post has always been very strong covering US Politics in DC.”
“I don't think that it really has much value as a journalistic periodical at this point”
“They produce outstanding journalism with the exception of their Zionist pro-war bias”
“a subscription service that pivots to reinforcing the owner's beliefs”
“I canceled my subscription early last year”
“Bezos interfered and forbade it. There was no "choice" about it at all and that's why I (40+ year subscriber) unsubscribed.”
“At some point the paper stopped covering the business of congress and the federal government with regularity.”
“loss of credibility that Bezos himself caused by meddling in the presidential endorsement”
“They historically had the best political coverage of DC.”
“having that wiped out lost a lot of the paper's value to the people who used to read it daily”
“they are owned by and represent the interests of the Bourgeoisie”
“I unsubscribed in 2024 because of Bezos' direct meddling in the editorial process”
“Some of the few quality media companies”
“since there is no industry standard for responding to it, they ignore it”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.