Washington Post Executive Editor Sally Buzbee resigned suddenly on Sunday, ending her three-year stint directing the newspaper’s increasingly left-leaning coverage. Following Buzbee’s departure, a move described within the company as an “abrupt shakeup at the top,” Post executives have reportedly confronted staffers with an uncomfortable truth: “People are not reading your stuff.”
In an internal email announcing Buzbee’s resignation, Washington Post CEO and Publisher William Lewis called her “an incredible leader and a supremely talented media executive who will be sorely missed.” Follow-up statements from Lewis declined to elaborate on the circumstances that led to Buzbee’s exit.
“I really enjoyed working with Sally,” Lewis said. “I wish it could have gone on for longer, but it couldn’t. And I don’t think it’s appropriate to take that bit of the conversation any further.”
However, in recent months, Buzbee clashed repeatedly with Lewis over his efforts to completely restructure the Post’s newsroom. Lewis was hired onto the publication in November under a mandate from owner Jeff Bezos to reverse declining subscriptions and massive financial shortfalls.
According to company sources, Buzbee wanted to delay the restructuring—which involved creating new divisions to focus on “service and social media journalism”—until after the 2024 election. Lewis, however, wanted to enact this plan immediately. Ultimately, Buzbee’s opposition to her proposed role within the new structure led to an agreement that she should depart.
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On Monday, Lewis and other Post executives held a series of staff meetings to discuss the development with “reeling” newsroom staffers. While addressing the subject, Lewis also warned that the newspaper is struggling to maintain readership in the modern media landscape.
In one heated exchange with a Post staffer, Lewis warned that the newsroom cannot afford to be resistant to change, saying that “decisive, urgent” actions are needed for the company to survive upheaval within the media industry and a recent loss of subscribers and revenue.
“We are going to turn this thing around, but let’s not sugarcoat it. It needs turning around,” he said. “We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”
According to the Associated Press, the Washington Post saw a massive jump in subscriptions following Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017, which coincided with the rollout of the company slogan “Democracy dies in darkness.” After hitting 101 million unique visitors a month in 2020, the Post’s audience cratered once President Joe Biden took office, reaching only 50 million readers last year and posting a loss of $77 million for 2023. The outlet has since taken to “buying out” hundreds of employees to avoid mass layoffs.
During the same meeting, Lewis announced that Matt Murray, former editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, will temporarily take over Buzbee’s position until after the election. Once the election is over, Robert Winnett, the deputy editor of the Telegraph Media Group, will begin overseeing the paper’s core news beats, while Murray will transition to overseeing what Lewis is calling “the third newsroom.” Details about this new division have not been made public.
Murray has stated that he wants to push forward with the planned restructuring instead of “managing decline” at the historic newspaper.
“I’ve been in the business long enough, and I’ve done enough things that I’m not interested at this point in managing decline,” he said. “I’m interested in the future and growth … This is going to be an exciting time. We’re going to have a lot of new opportunities and new things.”
However, many Washington Post employees have expressed discontentment with the restructuring plan and balked at Lewis’ blunt assessment of where things stand at the company. Complaints were also lodged during staff meetings that Lewis now has “four White men running three newsrooms” despite his past pledges to implement Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion standards in hiring.
“We’re troubled by the sudden departure of our executive editor Sally Buzbee and the suggestion from our Publisher and CEO Will Lewis that the financial issues plaguing our company stem from the work of us as journalists instead of mismanagement from our leadership,” a statement from the company to USA Today said. “We are also concerned about the lack of diversity at the top levels of the organization, especially as the Post seeks to reach new audiences while continuing to cover the most pressing issues in the nation and the world.”
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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