In 2013, Jeff Bezos bought the “Washington Post” newspaper.[1]  The paper had struggled, but it soon began showing a profit. 

            In recent years, things have taken a bad turn.[2]  Since 2020 half the paper’s readers have fled and the “Post” lost $77 million in 2023 alone.  This could have gone on for quite a while if Bezos had been willing to use his immense wealth to subsidize a failing business.  He wasn’t. 

            In June 2023, Bezos parted company with CEO Fred Ryan.  Bezos replaced Ryan with a trusted confidant from Amazon, Patty Stonesipher.  She determined that the paper had to cut costs and do more with less.  Specifically, the paper’s employment rolls were about 240 people too heavy.  Executive Editor Sally Buzbee[3] had added 41 editorial employees in 2021.[4]   

            Bezos did what a host of other American publications have done.  He got in a hard-nosed Brit to turn things around.[5]  In November 2023, Bezos hired Will Lewis as CEO and publisher.[6]  Lewis spent some time studying the issues and getting to know his new colleagues.  Among those colleagues was executive editor Sally Buzbee.  Then Lewis came up with a plan.  The newsroom as he found it had a simple division between news and opinion.  He would split the newsroom into three divisions: news, opinion, and social media and service journalism.  In April 2024, Lewis presented his plan to senior staff.  He would bring in a new editor for the news division, while Sally Buzbee would be offered the editing role at social media and service journalism.  Buzbee interpreted this move as a demotion.[7]  She considered her options.

            In mid-May 2024, Buzbee told Lewis that the paper planned to publish an article on a British newspaper scandal in which he was named.[8]  Lewis tried to talk her out of this plan.  She refused.  Lewis told Buzbee that, in the words of the New York Times, “her decision represented a lapse in judgment.”  However, Lewis did not prevent the “Post” from running the story later in May 2024.

            Buzbee resigned on 1 June 2024.  “Sally is an incredible leader and a supremely talented media executive who will be sorely missed. I wish her all the best going forward.”—Will Lewis. 

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[1] On Bezos, see: Jeff Bezos – Wikipedia 

[2] Useful background in A Decade Ago, Jeff Bezos Bought The Washington Post. Now He’s Paying Attention to It Again. – The New York Times (nytimes.com) 

[3] On Buzbee, see: Sally Buzbee – Wikipedia

[4] Sally Buzbee, Washington Post Editor, to Leave Role – The New York Times (nytimes.com) 

[5] See: The British Aren’t Coming. They’re Here. – The New York Times (nytimes.com)  The article is scheduled to run in the 10 June 2024 paper.  According to the NYT, “hard-nosed, scrappy journalism is a cherished tradition in Britain, where broadsheets and tabloids have battled it out for decades, often on budgets dwarfed by American rivals.”  Tina Brown is quoted saying that “the British press is much less self-important, and what I call the elite press in the U.S. is far more sententious about their place in the world.”  NB: We’re not used to thinking of the U.S. as the ‘old country” where tradition reigns.  Still, it would explain a lot.     

[6] On Lewis, see William Lewis (journalist) – Wikipedia and Will Lewis Named C.E.O. of The Washington Post – The New York Times (nytimes.com) 

[7] It could also be seen as a slap in the face meant to force her out of the “Post” entirely.  Buzbee had only been at the “Post” for three years; high-level jobs in journalism are thin on the ground; and she is 59 years old, with a lot of good earning-years in front of her. 

[8] Briefly, some of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid newspapers were being sued over illegal phone-hacking.  There are multiple plaintiffs, including Prince Harry, and multiple defendants.  Lewis was not one of the defendants.  Instead, the plaintiffs wanted to list Lewis and others as subsequently having tried to conceal evidence of the hacking.