Washington Post publisher announces departure
Washington Post publisher and CEO Will Lewis is leaving three days after the troubled newspaper announced it would lay off a third of its staff.
Lewis and the newspaper’s billionaire owner Jeff Bezos did not attend the meeting with staff where the layoffs were announced.
“During my tenure, difficult decisions were made to ensure the Post’s sustainable future so that it can publish high-quality, nonpartisan news to millions of customers every day for many years to come,” Lewis wrote in a message to staff shared online by the paper’s White House bureau chief, Matt Viser.
Jeff D’Onofrio, the paper’s chief financial officer, will serve as acting publisher and CEO, the Post said. He only joined the newspaper last June.
The firings sparked outrage from those in the media who lamented the collapse of a once-respected institution, including Bob Woodward, the associate editor who broke the Watergate scandal.
British-born Lewis was a former top executive at The Wall Street Journal before taking over as head of The Post in January 2024.
His tenure was challenging from the start; was marked by layoffs and a failed restructuring plan that led to the departure of former senior editor Sally Buzbee.
The Post also lost tens of thousands of subscribers following Bezos’ order late in the presidential campaign to withdraw Kamala Harris’ anticipated endorsement for the presidency and subsequent changes to tip its editorial pages in a more conservative direction.
As expected, last week’s layoffs were deeper than expected; This resulted in the closure of the Post’s famous sports section, sharp cuts in overseas and metro coverage, and layoffs of the photography team.
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