The Washington Post’s publisher and chief executive, Will Lewis, announced Saturday evening that he would depart after two turbulent years at the paper. His tenure was marked by a series of controversial decisions, mounting losses and a round of layoffs that eliminated more than a third of the newsroom.
Lewis described his time as “two years of transformation” in his resignation note. The paper’s chief financial officer, Jeff D’Onofrio, will serve as acting CEO.
The departures followed a brutal round of cuts announced Wednesday that drastically reduced the paper’s scope. More than a third of the newsroom was laid off after Lewis’s strategies failed to stop several years of multimillion-dollar losses; Lewis had told staff in June 2024 that the paper had faced losses as high as $100 million. The sports desk was eliminated, local news staff fell from more than 40 to roughly a dozen, and the international desk was decimated — including the entire Middle East team, the Ukraine bureau chief and another war correspondent. One reporter said she received the email firing her while she was in a war zone.
Lewis was notably absent from the mandatory Zoom call where newsroom leaders announced the layoffs, and he did not address readers publicly about the cuts. He was photographed the next day on a red carpet at a Super Bowl event in Northern California, a move that further inflamed staff anger. In recent weeks, journalists had appealed directly to owner Jeff Bezos to spare the newsroom from cuts and seek financial solutions; Bezos did not respond to those letters.
Executive Editor Matt Murray told staff the paper aims to maintain a “presence” in about 12 global locations, likely relying heavily on local stringers. He said the newsroom will focus on U.S. politics and national security, plus health and wellness and other high-interest beats, with an overall staff of about 500 people. Four people familiar with the plans said details are still evolving and could change.
Bezos issued a public statement Saturday saying The Post has “an essential journalistic mission” and calling the future “an extraordinary opportunity.” D’Onofrio, in the same release, framed his new role as preserving both the paper’s legacy and its business: “I am honored to become part of charting that future and to take the lead in securing both the legacy and business of this fierce, storied American institution.”
Bezos bought The Post from the Graham family in 2013 and pledged to treat it as a generational investment while largely staying out of newsroom coverage. Under previous leadership the paper had periods of profitability, but losses grew in recent years. Bezos forced out former publisher Fred Ryan in 2023 when it became clear his approach had not stopped red ink.
Lewis, a British executive with a background on Fleet Street and experience leading the Wall Street Journal’s publisher unit, drew Bezos’s interest for his track record in stabilizing news businesses and handling conservative figures. But his tenure at The Post was shadowed by controversies dating to his time in Britain. Plaintiffs suing Murdoch’s tabloids argued in court that Lewis had been involved in efforts to hide evidence of criminality at the papers. Lewis pressured NPR to drop reporting about those allegations and later sought to influence The Post’s handling of its own reporting on him. Those conflicts contributed to internal friction when Lewis arrived.
Tensions escalated after Bezos intervened in editorial decisions. In October (year reported as 2025 in some coverage), Bezos halted an editorial endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris days before the election. In February 2025, Bezos directed a revamp of the paper’s editorial page to emphasize “personal liberties and free markets,” a change that aligned with his views and prompted the editorial page editor to resign. The moves coincided with a wave of subscriber cancellations — more than 375,000, about 15% of digital subscribers — contributing to the financial strain Lewis cited.
Post journalists protested outside the newsroom after the layoffs, and former executive editor Marty Baron — who led the newsroom during profitable years and praised its journalism — published a scathing statement blaming “ill-conceived decisions that came from the very top” for worsening the paper’s troubles.
Lewis’s resignation note was brief and upbeat. He said now was the “right time for me to step aside” and praised Bezos as an 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 wrote.
As the paper moves forward under D’Onofrio’s interim leadership, editors and staff face the task of preserving essential coverage with a much-reduced newsroom while restoring trust with readers and remaining journalists.
