Washington Post Executive Editor Sally Buzbee is stepping down from her position, a major and sudden change at one of the nation’s largest news organizations.
Matt Murray, former editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, will take his place during the presidential election, the company said Sunday night. Robert Winnett, deputy editor of Telegraph Media Group, will take over after the election.
Murray will take on a new role after the election and build a new newsroom within The Washington Post focused on social media and service journalism.
Buzbee, 58, led the newspaper for the past three years, a turbulent period that resulted in award-winning journalism as well as a decline in audience and an exodus of some of the newsroom’s top talent.
Buzbee and Murray did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“Sally is an incredible leader and extremely talented media executive who will be deeply missed,” Will Lewis, CEO and publisher of The Post, said in a statement. “I wish him all the best in the future.”
Lewis has set out to remake the newspaper’s front ranks since he was appointed last year. In April, The Post announced the addition of Suzi Watford, a former top executive at Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, as its chief strategy editor. In January, The Post named Karl Wells as its chief growth officer, a role responsible for subscription strategy, partnerships, licensing and data analytics.
At a town hall last month, Lewis updated employees on his strategy to revive the business and revealed the extent of the Post’s financial problems, including that it lost more than $70 million in 2023 and suffered a substantial decline in its audience.
Murray, 58, ran The Journal for four years, a position to which he was appointed by Lewis, who was then CEO of Dow Jones and publisher of The Journal. Murray was replaced in 2023 by British editor Emma Tucker. Since then, he has served as a consultant to News Corp, which owns The Journal, and has worked as a contributing editor for News Items, an email newsletter publication.
Buzbee joined The Post in June 2021 after serving as executive editor of The Associated Press, where she spent her entire career. She took over The Post from Marty Baron, a legendary newspaper editor who had run The Post for eight years and oversaw its transition to ownership by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who bought the newspaper for $250 million. in 2013.
The Post greatly expanded its editing ranks under Ms. Buzbee, announcing the addition of approximately 41 positions in 2021 and revamping its vaunted Styles section. The newspaper also closed its Sunday magazine, a move that upset many of the paper’s editors. He has received six Pulitzer Prizes since joining, three of them this year.
Fred Ryan, the company’s former CEO, resigned last June and was replaced in the meantime by Patty Stonesifer, a member of Amazon’s board of directors. Stonesifer, a Bezos confidant, evaluated the company and soon determined that it needed to eliminate about 240 jobs to become economically sustainable. Stonesifer led the search for her successor and recruited Lewis to The Post last year.