Sally Buzbee Quits The Washington Post
The executive editor of the struggling iconic paper has buzzed off after just three years, six months into new CEO's term.
Newly named executive editor Matt Murray addresses the newsroom this morning, as seated CEO Will Lewis watches on.
Washington Post staffers, and media watchers, were shocked on Monday morning when executive editor Sally Buzbee, the first woman to hold the role, stunningly and abruptly quit after just three years.
Buzbee succeeded legendary editor Mary Baron following the Post’s apex during the Trump administration, but recent years for the paper have been miserable. Last year it lost $77 million and audience dropped by 50% from 2020, while arch rival New York Times dominated and added millions of subscribers with innovative strategies and success that the Post has never been able to replicate, and has offered voluntary buyouts amid looming layoffs.
Will Lewis was brought in to serve as CEO to turn the fortunes around in January, with a mandate to cut costs and find ways to add revenue. Lewis began implementing plans to create a new organizational structure where the newsroom and opinion section into three smaller divisions, and offered the popular Buzbee control of one. She rejected the demotion and shrinking of her authority, and quit on Sunday night despite having the support of the newsroom, leaving a major newspaper without an established leader right in the middle of election season.
Matt Murray, the former editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal, was unveiled by Lewis on Monday morning as the new leader of the Post’s newsroom, and will serve as executive editor until the election, at which point he will transition to run the division focused on service and social media journalism. Robert Winnett, leader of news operations at The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph for the past decade, will take over the company’s core coverage areas after that. David Shipley will continue to run The Post’s increasingly more interesting opinion section (aside from Karen Attiah and Shadi Hamid). Both Muarry and Winnett worked with Lewis in the past.