The CEO of The Washington Post has stepped down days after the media company cut roughly 30% of its staff.
The Post announced publisher Will Lewis’ departure on Saturday. Lewis also wrote a short note to staff in which he explained that he was leaving “to ensure” a “sustainable future” for the media outlet.
“After two years of transformation at The Washington Post, now is the right time for me to step aside,” Lewis wrote, according to CNN. “I want to thank Jeff Bezos for his support and leadership throughout my tenure as CEO and Publisher. The institution could not have a better owner.”
“During my tenure, difficult decisions have been taken in order to ensure the sustainable future of The Post so it can for many years ahead publish high-quality nonpartisan news to millions of customers each day,” he concluded.
Lewis joined The Washington Post in 2024, brought on board by Bezos to help turn the outlet around after years of shrinking readership and financial losses. Jeff D’Onofrio, the Post’s chief financial officer, will succeed Lewis in the interim.
Post owner Jeff Bezos also wrote a note included in the release announcing the change. The Amazon founder said that The Washington Post has “an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity,” according to Business Insider.
“Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus,” Bezos said.
The Post made major changes this week to reverse its trajectory, cutting roughly 300 jobs as it seeks to strip away parts of the company that it sees as financial liabilities and focus resources on profitable areas. Executives at the company said that the outlet has failed to adapt to a changing media landscape and must make tough decisions to stay relevant and competitive.
“If we are to thrive, not just endure, we must reinvent our journalism and our business model with renewed ambition,” executive editor Matt Murray wrote in a note to staff on Wednesday amid the layoffs.
The major cuts came to the newsroom’s international reporting and sports department, which no longer exists. Some of the sports writers were folded into the features section of the paper. The paper shrunk its international coverage, but will keep reporters on the ground in about a dozen countries.
The Post is also restructuring its metro section and shutting down its Post Reports podcast. The outlet will focus on national news, investigations, and health and wellness.
“Today is about positioning ourselves to become more essential to people’s lives in what has become a more crowded, competitive, and complicated media landscape,” Murray said during a call with staff on Wednesday. “For too long, we’ve operated with a structure that’s too rooted in the days when we were a quasi-monopoly local newspaper.”
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