Washington Post CEO and publisher Will Lewis resigns days after mass layoffs

Washington Post publisher Will Lewis has announced that he is stepping down, bringing an end to a turbulent tenure just days after the newspaper revealed plans to lay off nearly one-third of its workforce.

Lewis informed staff of his decision in a brief two-paragraph email on Saturday, saying that after two years of transformation, “now is the right time for me to step aside”. The Post’s chief financial officer, Jeff D’Onofrio, has been appointed temporary publisher.

The announcement follows sweeping job cuts unveiled earlier in the week, which went beyond expectations and resulted in the closure of the newspaper’s long-standing sports section, the elimination of its photography department and sharp reductions in teams covering metropolitan Washington and international news. Neither Lewis nor the paper’s owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, attended the staff meeting at which the layoffs were announced.

The cuts come after years of instability at the newspaper, including high-profile departures of journalists and editors. The Post is reported to have lost tens of thousands of subscribers following Bezos’s decision during the 2024 US presidential campaign to pull back from a planned endorsement of then Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, alongside a subsequent shift of the opinion section in a more conservative direction.

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Former executive editor Martin Baron strongly criticised Bezos this week, accusing him of attempting to curry favour with President Donald Trump and describing the situation at the newspaper as “a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction”.

Washington Post and Lewis

Lewis, who is British-born, joined The Washington Post in January 2024 after previously serving as a senior executive at The Wall Street Journal. His time at the paper was marked by repeated rounds of layoffs and a failed reorganisation that led to the departure of former executive editor Sally Buzbee.

His initial choice to succeed Buzbee, Robert Winnett, withdrew from the role after ethical concerns emerged over the conduct of both men during their time working in the UK. The issues centred on paying for information to secure major stories, a practice widely regarded as unethical in American journalism. Matt Murray was subsequently appointed executive editor.

Lewis also drew criticism from staff for his blunt assessments of the newsroom, at one point telling journalists that changes were needed because too few people were reading their work.

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The latest layoffs have renewed calls for Bezos either to increase his investment in the paper or sell it to an owner willing to take a more active role. Despite the criticism, Lewis praised Bezos in his farewell note, saying: “The institution could not have had a better owner.”

“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,” he added.

In a separate note to staff, interim publisher Jeff D’Onofrio acknowledged the scale of the changes. “We are ending a hard week of change with more change,” he wrote. “This is a challenging time across all media organisations, and The Post is unfortunately no exception.”