Jeff Bezos defended cutting 30% of Washington Post staff, saying profitability is the test of whether a news outlet is relevant — good news for free-market arguments, bad news for those who want billionaires to fund newsrooms as public trusts.

• Bezos told CNBC the Post must stand on its own. If people will not pay for it, the product is not good enough.
• Layoffs followed the data, with one exception: investigative reporting was protected.
• The newsroom is still bigger than during Watergate, and the Post just won a Pulitzer for its Doge investigation.
• The hosts called it a basic free-market argument: a business that loses money has to shrink, and no owner owes the public a money-losing newsroom.
• The segment pivoted to rich people leaving high-tax New York and California for Florida, naming Bezos, Zuckerberg, Griffin, and Messi.

Outlook: Expect more billionaires to push back on calls to subsidize legacy media, and more wealth to keep flowing to low-tax states.