This week, Will Lewis, publisher and CEO of the Washington Post, informed his chastised staff that the paper’s viewership has sharply decreased and that drastic action is required to turn a profit.
After Sally Buzbee unexpectedly left the Washington Post in 2021 and arrived from the Associated Press, they scheduled a meeting.
“World-class journalism is something we need every single day, and the people helping us do that will be really beneficial to the organization,” the speaker declared. According to Vanity Fair, the speaker expressed that he “really enjoyed working with Sally” and “hoped it could have lasted longer, but it couldn’t,” based on the feedback from others who attended the meeting.
The staff felt that Buzbee’s exit was not handled properly, and they opposed the replacement of a woman with another white man, which occasionally led to unpleasant discussions. The issue of diversity in the paper’s leadership came up multiple times. Lewis stated that while the lack of diversity is a concern, the nation’s capital newspaper’s financial losses are the primary issue.
Lewis has “abolished diversity from the leadership” and cannot “expect to bring in new readers.”
“We are suffering significant financial losses. In recent years, your readership has shrunk to half. Nobody is reading your content. Lewis expressed his dissatisfaction. “Therefore, I had to source the best talent I have ever worked with and take decisive, urgent action to set us on a different path.”
Employees perceived Buzbee as disrespectful, prompting the Washington Post to issue a brief message on Sunday about his departure in an effort to prevent the New York Times from stealing the story. As Politico pointed out, the Times made the news earlier than the Post did.
Even after the company’s precarious finances and shrinking readership became public, an employee who spoke with Vanity Fair remained fixated on the lack of diversity.
“She didn’t deserve to go out this way,” the staff member stated, adding that in talks with their peers, people “don’t feel good about the fact that The Washington Post’s first female executive editor got a one-paragraph farewell note that she is being replaced by more white men we don’t know.”
According to the New York Post, Lewis persuaded them that they needed to “get with the program.”
A similar source told the NY Post that Lewis cannot “expect to bring in new readers” as he has “abolished all diversity from the leadership.”
