After a tumultuous week at The Washington Post, including the unexpected announcement of a new editor and reports that its CEO objected to coverage of a story involving him, the news organization’s leaders spent Friday trying to reassure to the staff.
In a conciliatory memo to employees Friday night, Will Lewis, the chief executive, acknowledged that “trust has been lost” because of the “scars of the past and the comings and goings of this week.” He urged Post employees to “leave them behind and start assuming the best of intentions.”
“So, it’s time for me to have some humility,” Lewis wrote. “I need to improve my listening and communication so that we can all more clearly agree on where urgent improvements are needed and why.”
Matt Murray, the new editor, acknowledged the turmoil at the morning press briefing. He praised the newsroom for its work, including an unflinching article on the questions surrounding Mr. Lewis that he published Thursday night.
Murray, former editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, said he knew staff members were talking about the challenges facing The Post, but he encouraged them to “keep their heads up and be proud of journalism,” according to a recording . obtained by The New York Times.
He said he had refrained from working on the article about Mr. Lewis.
Additionally, Patty Stonesifer, the highly respected former interim CEO of The Post and a close confidant of The Post owner Jeff Bezos, visited the newsroom on Friday. Stonesifer helped elect Lewis as CEO last year.
Stonesifer met with senior editors and other journalists to help calm anxiety stemming from the week’s tumult, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The newsroom was rocked Sunday afternoon when Lewis announced that Sally Buzbee was resigning as editor of the paper and that Murray would temporarily replace her.
Lewis also announced a major reorganization. After the election, Murray will oversee a new division, focused on social media and services journalism. And a new editor, Robert Winnett, will oversee primary news coverage after the presidential election.
The Times later reported that Lewis and Buzbee had clashed over whether to cover a story about a hacking scandal in Britain. The judge in the case 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 objected to covering the story, according to two people with knowledge of the interaction. He has said the account of their exchange was inaccurate.
On Thursday, NPR reporter David Folkenflik wrote that last year Lewis proposed giving him an exclusive interview in exchange for not writing a story about the wiretapping scandal. Lewis told The Washington Post that he had had off-the-record conversations with Folkenflik, whom he called “an activist, not a journalist.”
Leaders of the Washington Post Guild, which represents newsroom members, sent a letter to Murray on Friday asking him to commit to journalistic independence, according to a copy of the letter seen by The Times.
In a note to staff later that day, Mr. Murray praised the Post’s journalism and affirmed his commitment to its journalistic integrity, noting: “The importance of our strong, independent journalism, immune to any outside pressure.”
Lewis had enjoyed a relatively smooth ride during his first five months in the job. He became accustomed to reading journalists’ articles early in the morning and sending them notes of praise and chatting regularly at their desks, generating goodwill.
Stonesifer said in an interview with The Post last year that she and Bezos decided on Lewis in part because he had spent years “first and foremost as a journalist, and then went on to say that great journalism needs great business.” “