Will Lewis, CEO and publisher of the Washington Post, announced his resignation after long-standing internal controversies. Recently, he ordered layoffs of one-third of the staff—about 300 employees—while the labor union urged Jeff Bezos to immediately cancel the layoffs or sell the company to genuine investors.
Will Lewis, publishing director and CEO of the Washington Post, has resigned. This decision came just days after he ordered a major company-wide layoff.
Lewis, a former senior executive at Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, took the position at the Washington Post in 2023 amid significant losses. In his farewell message to staff, he said, "Throughout this time, I have had to make difficult decisions to build a sustainable future so the organization can continue delivering impartial, quality news to readers."
However, Lewis's leadership faced heavy criticism, especially on Wednesday (February) when layoffs reached one-third of the workforce—300 reporters out of 800—across all departments. Former executive editor Marty Baron described it as "the darkest day" in the newspaper's history.
During Lewis's tenure, he faced repeated crises of confidence, including losing hundreds of thousands of members after a policy to stop endorsing U.S. presidential candidates and shifting editorial reviews toward neoliberal perspectives.
He also encountered resistance within the newsroom after attempting to rehire former staff implicated in the UK phone-hacking scandal, and conflicts with former executive editor Sally Buzbee, which led to her resignation.
The Washington Post labor union, representing employees, issued a statement saying, "Lewis’s resignation should have happened a long time ago," calling his legacy an effort to dismantle a great media institution. They demanded that owner Jeff Bezos immediately reverse the layoffs or consider selling to investors committed to the future of journalism.
Meanwhile, Jeff D’Onofrio, the chief financial officer with prior experience at Google and Yahoo, will serve as interim CEO. He pledged to employees that consumer data would be central to decisions aimed at delivering the most relevant value to readers.
Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner, described the changes as a "unique opportunity" for the newspaper to fulfill its journalistic mission and continue progressing toward success.