Will Lewis, the publisher and CEO of The Washington Post, abruptly stepped down just days after the newspaper announced significant layoffs, cutting one-third of its staff, including at least 300 journalists. The cuts, which dramatically scaled back coverage of sports, international news, and metropolitan Washington, were met with widespread criticism from journalists and former Post executives, including Marty Baron, who called it "among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organisations." Lewis's departure follows a tumultuous tenure marked by ethical questions and a failure to reverse the paper's financial losses, which at one point reached hundreds of millions of dollars.
Jeff D'Onofrio, who joined as the newspaper's chief financial officer last year, has been appointed as acting publisher and CEO, effective immediately. D'Onofrio, a former CEO of Tumblr, previously held positions at Raptive, Google, Zagat, and Major League Baseball. Owner Jeff Bezos, who did not participate in the staff meeting announcing the layoffs, stated that D'Onofrio and his team are positioned to lead the Post into "an exciting and thriving next chapter," emphasizing the use of consumer data and metrics to drive decisions.
The layoffs, which included the entire Middle East staff and the Kyiv-based Ukraine correspondent, led to protests and calls for Bezos to either increase his investment or sell the paper. Two GoFundMe pages were set up to support the laid-off staff, raising over $180,000 and $500,000 respectively. The Washington Post Guild, representing staff members, called Lewis's exit "long overdue" and stated that his legacy would be the "attempted destruction of a great American journalism institution."
Bezos's decisions have also drawn scrutiny, including his choice to kill a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris before the 2024 election and a subsequent reorientation of the paper's opinion section towards a more conservative direction. These actions led to hundreds of thousands of subscribers, approximately 15%, canceling their subscriptions. Critics argue that Bezos has been largely absent during these recent challenges, despite having previously invested heavily in the newsroom and business development, leading to six years of profitability before the losses began.
