Tech platform supporting Washington Post tech and other publications loses staff

Layoffs at the Washington Post in February impacted more than just the paper’s newsroom—they hit IT pros as well. And the ramifications of those job cuts could be far-reaching, according to some former staffers.

One of the products hit by staff reductions is Arc XP, the company’s digital experience platform (DXP)—providing assistance with content management system, monetization, and subscriptions—that counts the Boston Globe, the Irish Times, and other international and domestic outlets as customers.

Mike Stemle, a former Arc XP principal architect and a unit co-chair of the Washington Post’s Tech Guild, told IT Brew that he is concerned that the cuts at Arc XP could result in a deterioration of service and, potentially, security breaches (prior WaPo layoffs, in 2024, also affected the DXP’s staff).

“I am genuinely concerned about the safety and reliability of the services of Arc XP and the security and data privacy of Arc XP customers, as well as Washington Post readers and subscribers,” Stemle said. “I think that there is a tremendous amount of unnecessary business risk that the company brought upon itself.”

Nothing new. That’s a problem that many companies experience when it comes to layoffs, Arctic Wolf CISO Adam Marrè told IT Brew. When IT workers are let go, their knowledge goes with them, and while it’s not necessarily a one-to-one relationship that will definitely lead to disaster, the potential for product degradation does exist.

“When you see big layoffs, oftentimes a platform will have reliability issues,” Marrè—who was speaking generally and not about Arc XP specifically—said. “Typically, site reliability engineers have been impacted, and so there’s not as many people with as much knowledge to be able to maintain the site.”

Laid-off Arc XP staffers are paid through May 15, and are working to adjust the terms of the layoffs with corporate management, former employees told IT Brew.

Liza Pluto, Washington Post director of communications, shared an emailed statement with IT Brew, writing, “We have communicated our business updates to Arc XP customers, and there will be no impact to the platform or their service.”

Potential danger? Adverse cybersecurity incidents are a potential concern for any organization following layoffs, Marrè said.

“If it’s like most organizations, then they probably have quite a bit of tech debt—and some of that is security debt, which might lead a person to say they’re going to have a security incident,” Marrè said. “Obviously, the likelihood goes up when you let people go, period.”

Sara Carothers, Tech Guild secretary, worked at the Post for 14 years before being laid off in February, with 10 of those on Arc XP, most recently as a group product manager. She told IT Brew that laying off experienced unionized workers—and replacing them with contractors—could be detrimental not only to the current product suite but to the future of the company, as well.

“There are major news organizations around the world that rely on that core product line for writing, amplifying, monetizing their journalism,” Carothers said, and the Post is “shifting that work from those core products to offshore or contract employees who are not eligible for our union and generally can be paid significantly less.”

There are ways to manage this changeover effectively, Marrè told IT Brew, like bringing in third-party contractors early in the process.

“There are ways to do it that are higher risk and ways that are lower risk,” Marrè said. “It’s not guaranteed—hopefully, something bad doesn’t happen—but you’re definitely increasing your risk when you remove that context and that capability.”

Lost potential. Bridgette Gigi, a former Arc XP technical product manager, believes the loss of expertise regarding the highly complex platform will likely impact responsiveness and features. You can’t learn it on the fly, and that could have ripple effects if and when things go wrong.

“It takes a long time to come up to speed in a way that would be quick to fix something if something was broken,” Gigi said. “I don’t think the risk is immediate failure. It’s what happens when something does break or needs to evolve.”