Washington Post editor Buzbee out, organization announces restructuring

NEW YORK — The Washington Post was in turmoil Monday following the abrupt departure of its editor-in-chief and a hastily announced restructuring plan to stem the exodus of readers.

Post publisher Will Lewis and Matt Murray, a former Wall Street Journal editor named to temporarily replace Sally Buzbee, met with Post reporters and editors Monday to explain the changes outlined in a Sunday email .

The plan calls for dividing the newsroom into three divisions reporting to Lewis: one that encompasses the Post’s main news reporting, one with opinion pieces and the third devoted to attracting new consumers through the media social, video, artificial intelligence and sales.

“It kind of blindsided people,” said Paul Farhi, a recently retired Post reporter. “But it shows that Will Lewis is working with a sense of crisis and urgency. He’s only been there five months and is making gigantic changes to the editorial staff.

Like most news organizations, the Post has lost readers — a decline made more acute as the Washington-based outlet has seen a resurgence of interest in politics during the Trump administration. The Postal Service’s website had 101 million unique visitors per month in 2020, falling to 50 million by the end of 2023. The Postal Service lost $77 million last year.

“Although (Post owner) Jeff Bezos is very wealthy, I have observed that billionaires don’t like to lose money,” said Margaret Sullivan, a former Post columnist and now executive director of the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and. Safety at Columbia Journalism School.

The new division designed to attract new customers – the Post called it the “third editorial office” – is steeped in mystery. While the Post once had the headquarters of the people managing its digital products in a separate building, for several years it has integrated that and social media into the regular newsroom, as many organizations have done. Maybe it’s brilliant and innovative,” Sullivan said. “But that seems strange to me.”

“It seems so retro – it’s reminiscent of search engine optimization, social media and the shift to video, just as AI and agents threaten to become the new web,” said Jeff Jarvis, author of “ The Gutenberg Parenthesis: The Age of Print and its Lessons”. in the Internet age.

Murray will be in charge of this division after the election. The newspaper said that after that, Robert Winnett, a longtime editor at the Telegraph in England, would take over primary reporting duties at the Post.

Post staffers have expressed some concerns about three men — all new to a newspaper that prides itself on seeing its journalists rise through the ranks and two of whom were born in Britain — who are in charge at a crucial time.

“In a few months, two British-born editors will run the main newspaper in the capital of the United States,” Farhi said. “It was a bit unimaginable a few months ago.”

They will not be alone. Other U.S.-based news organizations run by British-born executives include the Wall Street Journal, with editor-in-chief Emma Tucker; CNN, with Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson; and The Associated Press, with Daisy Veerasingham as president and CEO.

Lewis was also asked about his commitment to diversity following the departure of the Post’s first woman executive editor. According to a person at the meeting, he said he was committed to it, “and you will see it moving forward.”

Lewis talked about finding ways to reach millions of Americans who want to stay informed but don’t think traditional news products meet their needs.

Farhi said efforts to make organizations like the Post and Times more attractive to subscribers could contribute to trends that hurt local news. As newspapers seek more national and international clients, he said, they are far less likely to invest in local news coverage.