Weeks before The Washington Post’s embattled executive editor abruptly resigned Sunday, her relationship with the company’s chief executive became increasingly strained.
In mid-May, the two clashed over whether to publish an article about a British hacking scandal with some ties to Post CEO Will Lewis, according to two people with knowledge of their interactions.
Sally Buzbee, the editor, informed Mr. Lewis that the newsroom planned to cover a judge’s scheduled ruling in a long-running British legal case brought by Prince Harry and others against some of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids, the news outlets said. people.
As part of the ruling, the judge was expected to say whether the plaintiffs could add Lewis’ name to a list of executives they said were involved in a scheme to hide evidence of hacking in newspapers. Lewis told Buzbee that the case involving him did not deserve coverage, the people said.
When Ms. Buzbee said The Post would publish an article anyway, he said her decision represented an error in judgment and abruptly ended the conversation.
The interaction unsettled Buzbee, who then consulted with confidants outside The Post about how he should handle the situation. When the judge ruled several days later, on May 21, that Mr. Lewis could be added to the case, The Post published an article about the decision.
Mr. Lewis did not prevent the publication of the article. But the incident continued to weigh on Ms. Buzbee just as she was considering her future at the newspaper, according to two people with knowledge of her decision-making process. Her eventual decision to resign has rocked one of the country’s leading news organizations.
The interaction over the court ruling was not the main reason for his resignation. Buzbee had already been mulling his future at The Post because of a plan by Lewis to reorganize the newsroom that he presented to him in April, the people said. According to the people, Lewis had offered Buzbee a job running a new division focused on social media and service journalism. She considered that a demotion, since her job as executive editor included overseeing all parts of the news report.
A spokeswoman for The Post declined to comment. Buzbee also declined to comment.
Lewis was appointed by Jeff Bezos, owner of The Post and founder of Amazon, late last year to remake the publication, which was reeling from a sharp decline in audience and annual losses of tens of millions of dollars. Over the past few months, Lewis, who was previously chief executive of News Corp’s Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, has been formulating a strategy to overhaul the business.
He decided to divide the editorial ranks into three divisions: a central newsroom covering politics, business and other topics; an opinion section; and a new division that would focus on social media, such as video storytelling, as well as services journalism, including wellness and lifestyle coverage. (The Post is currently divided into two parts, news and opinion).
Offering Buzbee a position running the social media and services journalism division, according to people familiar with his thinking, Lewis told him he could have a say in hiring the editor to oversee the central news operation. He later informed her that he had selected Robert Winnett, an editor at The Daily Telegraph who previously worked with Lewis, the people said.
The conversation between Lewis and Buzbee about phone hacking coverage took place in a conference room at an executive meeting outside the Post newsroom. At the meeting, Post executives discussed Lewis’ planned changes at The Post.
Editors sometimes alert senior executives to thorny stories before they are published. In 2013, Martin Baron, the former editor who preceded Buzbee, briefed The Post editor Katharine Weymouth before The Post began reporting on sensitive stories about the National Security Agency. In 1971, Ben Bradlee, a crusading managing editor, gave Katherine Graham, the Post’s former owner, notice before the paper published articles on the Pentagon Papers, which revealed the secret history of the Vietnam War.
Lewis declined to comment to The Post for its article on the ruling in the phone hacking case. But in numerous previous media interviews, he has strongly denied allegations that he was involved in covering up phone hacking while he was a senior Murdoch executive. The Post had previously published an article in March about the lawsuit that also named Mr. Lewis.
In a contentious staff meeting on Monday, Lewis defended his business strategy, telling the newsroom that The Post had lost $77 million in the previous year, had seen a 50 percent decline in its audience since 2020 and needed to make radical changes to be successful.
“Let’s not sugarcoat it. It needs to be turned around, right? she said, according to a recording of the meeting. “We are losing large amounts of money. Its audience has halved in recent years. “People don’t read your stuff.”
He continued: “I have had to take decisive and urgent action to set us on a different path, seeking out talent I have worked with who are the best of the best.”