Will Lewis, CEO of The Washington Post, announced on Saturday he is stepping down, just days after the newspaper said that it was laying off one-third of its staff.
Lewis announced his departure in an email to the newspaper’s staff, saying that after two years of transformation, “now is the right time for me to step aside.” Lewis will be temporarily replaced by The Post’s chief financial officer, Jeff D’Onofrio.
A statement from the Post said only that D’Onofrio was succeeding Lewis “effective immediately.”
Hundreds of Post journalists were let go in the sweeping cuts announced on Wednesday. While the newspaper did not disclose the number of jobs being eliminated, The New York Times reported approximately 300 of its 800 journalists were laid off.
Neither Lewis nor the newspaper’s billionaire owner Jeff Bezos participated in the meeting with staff members announcing the layoffs on Wednesday.
The cutbacks were deeper than expected, resulting in the shutdown of the Post’s renowned sports section, the elimination of its photography staff and sharp reductions in personnel responsible for coverage of metropolitan Washington and overseas.
In recent years, The Post saw widespread talent defections and lost tens of thousands of subscribers following Bezos’ decision late in the 2024 presidential campaign to pull back from a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris, and a subsequent reorienting of its opinion section in a more conservative direction.
Martin Baron, The Post’s first editor under Bezos, called out the billionaire for attempting to “curry favour with President Trump” and called what has happened at the newspaper “a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction.”
The British-born Lewis was a former top executive at The Wall Street Journal before taking over at The Post in January 2024. His tenure has been rocky from the start, marked by layoffs and a failed reorganisation plan that led to the departure of former top editor Sally Buzbee.
This week’s layoffs have led to some calls for Bezos to either increase his investment in The Post or sell it to someone who will take a more active role. Lewis, in his note, praised Bezos: “The institution could not have had a better owner,” he said.
“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,” Lewis said.
The Washington Post Guild, the union representing staff members, called Lewis’ exit long overdue.
“His legacy will be the attempted destruction of a great American journalism institution,” the Guild said in a statement. “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.”
“If Jeff Bezos is no longer willing to invest in the mission that has defined this paper for generations and serve the millions who depend on Post journalism, then the Post deserves a steward who that will.”
Bezos did not mention Lewis in a statement saying D’Onofrio and his team are positioned to lead The Post into “an exciting and thriving next chapter.”
“The Post has an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity,” Bezos said. “Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus.”
D’Onofrio, who joined the paper last June after jobs at the digital ad management company Raptive, Google, Zagat and Major League Baseball, said in a note to staff that “we are ending a hard week of change with more change.”
“This is a challenging time across all media organisations, and The Post is unfortunately no exception,” he wrote. “I’ve had the privilege of helping chart the course of disrupters and cultural stalwarts alike. All faced economic headwinds in changing industry landscapes, and we rose to meet those moments. I have no doubt we will do just that, together.”
Additional sources • AP