Will Lewis’s first year at ‘Washington Post’: Cancellations, red ink and an exodus

One debacle after one other has engulfed The Washington Publish since veteran newspaper govt Will Lewis turned CEO and writer a 12 months in the past this month, with the cost from proprietor Jeff Bezos to make the storied newspaper financially sustainable.

The appointment of a brand new govt editor was botched. A killed presidential endorsement led lots of of hundreds of subscribers to cancel. High reporters and editors left. Scandals involving Lewis’ actions as a information govt years in the past within the U.Okay. reemerged. A transparent imaginative and prescient to safe the Publish’s monetary future stays elusive.

Frustration boiled over on Tuesday night time. Greater than 400 Publish journalists, together with some editors, signed a petition asking Bezos to intervene.

“We’re deeply alarmed by current management selections which have led readers to query the integrity of this establishment, damaged with a practice of transparency, and prompted a few of our most distinguished colleagues to go away,” it reads, partly.

The petition by no means cites Lewis by identify, however it reads as a pointy indictment of his management. By means of a spokesperson, Lewis and the Publish declined remark for this story. A consultant of Bezos didn’t return a request for remark.

For this story, NPR interviewed 10 Washington Publish staffers contained in the newsroom and on the enterprise facet of the paper, together with some who didn’t signal the petition. They agreed to talk to NPR underneath situation of anonymity for concern of repercussions contained in the paper.

They are saying the backlash towards Lewis encompasses Bezos to some extent, as he has publicly warmed as much as President-elect Donald Trump. (The Publish declined remark.)

Billionaire Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Publish, spoke throughout the New York Instances DealBook summit in December. “I am pleased with the choice we made, and it was removed from cowardly,” he mentioned of his choice to not let the newspaper endorse Vice President Kamala Harris earlier than the election.

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Bezos’ choice to kill a deliberate endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris simply days earlier than the November election led greater than 300,000 subscribers to cancel, wiping out way more modest positive aspects The Publish had achieved underneath Lewis. (A spokesperson says The Publish has satisfied about 20% of these cancelling over the endorsement to stay subscribers.)

The choice additionally led to some resignations. Current days on the Publish have witnessed the continuation of a months-long parade of exits of extremely regarded newsroom veterans — most not too long ago, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Rosalind Helderman, investigative reporter Josh Dawsey and columnist Jennifer Rubin. Pulitzer-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes stop after her sketch displaying Bezos kneeling earlier than Trump with a bag of cash was rejected.

The tech titan’s enterprise pursuits, together with Amazon Internet Companies and the area firm Blue Origin, obtain billions of {dollars} from federal contracts. He is given $1 million towards Trump’s inauguration prices and traveled to Mar-a-Lago together with his fiancée to fulfill with the president-elect. Amazon Studios agreed to pay Melania Trump thousands and thousands of {dollars} for a documentary challenge about her, in keeping with Puck Information. Come Monday, Bezos is anticipated to hitch Trump advisor Elon Musk and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg on the inauguration platform itself.

After blocking publication of the Publish‘s endorsement of Harris, Bezos admitted that he, together with his many enterprises, was a “complexifier” for the paper. However he mentioned these pursuits had nothing to do together with his choice, as an alternative pointing to plummeting public belief within the media.

“We should work tougher to regulate what we will management to extend our credibility,” Bezos wrote in an opinion piece for the Publish. “By itself, declining to endorse presidential candidates shouldn’t be sufficient to maneuver us very far up the belief scale, however it’s a significant step in the proper path.”

The Publish‘s reporting, from the Pentagon Papers to Watergate to January 6, locations it among the many pantheon of significant American journalistic establishments. However it’s a diminished outlet on the eve of Trump’s second inauguration.

Bezos was seen because the paper’s savior when he purchased it in 2013 and as a champion of journalism throughout the first Trump time period. Many individuals on the Publish retain hope that Bezos will assist the paper return to type. The petition states that the query of the presidential endorsement is “the proprietor’s prerogative.”

But it asks for Bezos’s renewed give attention to the paper.

“We perceive the necessity for change and we’re desirous to ship the information in revolutionary methods,” the letter states. “However we want a transparent imaginative and prescient we will imagine in.”

Lewis’ conservative credentials enchantment to Bezos

Lewis’ report on the Wall Road Journal — he had been its writer and chief govt — appealed to Bezos. The Journal’s digital subscriptions soared throughout his tenure, enabling it to seek out agency footing.

Challenges on the Publish, in distinction, had been mounting. In late 2023, on the eve of Lewis’ arrival, the Publish purchased out 10 % of its workforce.

Moreover, as Trump’s return to Washington appeared extra doubtless, Lewis additionally appealed to Bezos due to his ease in dealing with conservative figures. This account is derived from two folks with direct information of Bezos’ pondering who spoke on the situation that they weren’t named, as they weren’t licensed to debate the matter publicly.

Lewis had been editor of the conservative Telegraph newspaper in London, intently aligned with the Tory celebration. The Journal is managed by Rupert Murdoch, for whom Lewis additionally labored within the U.Okay. And through a break between media jobs, Lewis had consulted for then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

On the Publish, Lewis initially loved a heat welcome. He charmed his new colleagues and promised to show issues round. That enchantment soured over revelations he had repeatedly pressured then-Govt Editor Sally Buzbee to not cowl damning allegations about his work for Murdoch in London greater than a decade in the past. Lewis had beforehand pressured NPR to not report its story that had initially drawn Buzbee’s consideration.

Lewis has rejected the allegations. He additionally has denied inappropriately pressuring Buzbee and referred to as me “an activist, not a journalist.”

Buzbee left final spring; Lewis’s alternative for govt editor, a former colleague, ran aground in June on robust scrutiny of moral questions surrounding the journalism they did collectively within the U.Okay.

Reporters say Lewis snapped at them throughout a contentious city corridor early that month, telling them that the paper had misplaced $100 million in 2022 and $77 million in 2023. He advised writers that they wanted to vary how they did their jobs, as folks weren’t studying their work.

Final 12 months, the paper was on monitor to chop that annual loss to $50 million. That determine shot again as much as $100 million after the mass subscriber cancellations final fall.

Stars hit the exits as newsroom leaders squirm 

Govt Editor Matt Murray and Editorial Web page Editor David Shipley repeatedly discover themselves in tough positions.

Shipley knowledgeable Telnaes that her depiction of Bezos and different media and tech billionaires displaying fealty to Trump would not run. Telnaes, who stop, tells NPR she all the time accepts enhancing however had by no means beforehand been advised she could not tackle a particular matter. In a observe to colleagues, Shipley mentioned the sketch overlapped an excessive amount of with two opinion columns addressing the identical topic.

In keeping with 4 folks with information, Murray has set a coverage that the paper should not report tales about itself, together with controversies and departures, although it has beforehand carried out so completely. (They spoke on situation of anonymity due to concern of repercussions.)

“They’re compromised,” former Publish columnist Jennifer Rubin, who resigned this week after greater than 14 years, tells NPR about newsroom leaders. “Journalism shouldn’t be about balancing the monetary pursuits of your proprietor towards your journalistic obligations.”

Shipley declined remark. Murray has not responded to prior requests for remark. Rubin left to create a brand new website, referred to as The Contrarian, to offer accountability journalism on the upcoming Trump administration.

Murray, who led the Journal newsroom underneath Lewis, was dropped at Washington by Lewis final 12 months. Murray advised staffers he’ll proceed to run the Publish‘s information facet however that has not but been introduced publicly.

Regardless of all of the clashes and turmoil, the paper has continued to win kudos for its work. It has taken initiatives to combine cutting-edge synthetic intelligence instruments into its journalism and its expertise for readers. New leaders have been named for an innovation hub rechristened as WP Ventures. The paper has made a few of its personal spectacular hires, together with reporters from the Journal and Politico. And Murray has added a brand new senior requirements editor place, hiring a former prime Journal editor. 

But the paper not too long ago lower one other 4% of its employees, all on the enterprise facet. That included 73 positions in promoting, in keeping with the New York Instances. Staffers ask how improvements propelling new revenues are to realize traction with out further funding.

Chief Technique Officer Suzi Watford, a former SiriusXM govt who additionally beforehand labored for Lewis on the Journal, has been collaborating with senior leaders for months to refine the Publish‘s mission for the present age.

She is claimed to be constructing on the seven core ideas set out by Eugene Meyer, the paper’s proprietor in 1935.

Amongst Meyer’s core ideas: “The newspaper’s responsibility is to its readers and to the general public at massive, and to not the personal pursuits of its homeowners.”