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Washington Post CEO Will Lewis Steps Down Amidst Major Layoffs and Staff Outcry
Washington D.C. – The Washington Post is once again in the spotlight, as Chief Executive Officer and publisher Will Lewis announced his resignation just days after the publication underwent a significant round of layoffs, impacting its local, international, and sports sections.
Lewis confirmed his departure in a Saturday statement, expressing gratitude to owner Jeff Bezos for the opportunity to “revitalize” the company. “After two years of transformation at The Washington Post, now is the right time for me to step aside,” Lewis wrote.
He further added, “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.”
His tenure was marked by controversial decisions aimed at restoring the legacy publication’s profitability, including an embrace of artificial intelligence, podcasts, and news aggregation. Lewis had previously addressed staff in 2024, stating, “We are losing large amounts of money.
Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff.”
In response to Lewis’s exit, Jeff Bezos issued his first statement since the massive layoffs, emphasizing the Post’s “essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity.” Bezos highlighted the importance of reader data, noting, “The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus.”
The news of Lewis’s resignation was met with a different sentiment from The Washington Post Guild, a union representing many newsroom staffers. They celebrated his departure, declaring his “exit is long overdue.”
The Guild’s statement sharply criticized Lewis, asserting, “His legacy will be the attempted destruction of a great American journalism institution. But it’s not too late to save The Post.
Jeff Bezos must immediately rescind these layoffs or sell the paper to someone willing to invest in its future.”
Taking the helm as acting publisher and CEO will be CFO Jeff D’Onofrio, who joined the company in June after serving as the former CEO of Tumblr. D’Onofrio expressed his honor in a memo, stating he is “honored to take the helm as acting Publisher and CEO to lead us into a sustainable, successful future with the strength of our journalism as our north star.”
Lewis’s decision to step down came as a surprise to many, as he had been seen in meetings just days prior with no indication of an impending departure. He was also reportedly in San Francisco for a Super Bowl event this week, a stark contrast to the paper’s recent decision to cut its sports section. Staff members reportedly had not heard from Lewis in the days following the dramatic layoffs.
Hundreds of Journalists Laid Off in Sweeping Cuts
Saturday’s announcement followed the company’s disclosure to employees that over 300 business-side personnel and approximately 800 journalists from the newsroom would be laid off. This significant restructuring includes the complete elimination of the newspaper’s sports section and substantial reductions in other areas, including international coverage.
While the sports section as a whole is being cut, some sports reporters will be reassigned to the features section to cover sports culture. The metro section is also expected to be significantly downsized, and the books section will be closed entirely.
International bureaus in the Middle East, India, and Australia saw reporters and editors laid off, though the publication will maintain a presence in nearly a dozen locations worldwide.
In a note to staff, the Post’s executive editor, Matt Murray, acknowledged the painful nature of the decision but stressed its necessity to strengthen the company amidst evolving industry landscapes, particularly in technology and user habits. “We can’t be everything to everyone,” Murray wrote.
Moving forward, Murray stated that the publication will sharpen its focus on national news, politics, business, and health. Despite this, every section of the paper is expected to experience some level of impact. “If anything, today is about positioning ourselves to become more essential to people’s lives in what is becoming more crowded, competitive, and complicated media landscape,” Murray commented, acknowledging “some years, when, candidly, The Post has had struggles.”
Rumors of the impending layoffs had circulated for weeks after it was revealed that sports reporters slated to cover the Winter Olympics in Italy would no longer be attending. However, the sheer scale of the cuts still came as a shock to many.
Margaret Sullivan, a journalism professor at Columbia University and former media columnist for the Post and The New York Times, expressed her dismay to The Associated Press, calling it “devastating news for anyone who cares about journalism in America and, in fact, the world. The Washington Post has been so important in so many ways, in news coverage, sports and cultural coverage.”