On Sunday night, minutes after Washington Post CEO Will Lewis informed employees that the paper’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, was being replaced, managers gathered on a conference call to hear from their boss for the last time.
Buzbee told them that a new organizational structure created by Lewis—effectively dividing the Washington Post’s newsroom and opinion section into three smaller divisions—wasn’t working for her. She added that Lewis was pushing for aggressive action to turn the Post around and asked editors to reserve judgment from her for now.
“I would have preferred to stay to help us get through this period, but there came a point where that was no longer possible,” Buzbee said, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The surprising call, which some aides described as funereal, added to the growing tension between the newsroom and Lewis, who has set out to remake The Post since he started in January.
Many journalists and editors thought Ms. Buzbee would remain in office at least until the November presidential election. Just two weeks ago, Lewis and Buzbee had addressed Post staff together at a highly anticipated all-hands meeting.
But Buzbee chafed at Lewis’s plans to separate the Post newsroom into segments, according to two people familiar with his thinking, and the pair quickly reached an impasse. Lewis said he could direct one of the two newsroom segments, but resigned, according to a person with knowledge of the interactions.
The reorganization would have been an effective demotion for Ms. Buzbee, who is currently in charge of all news content at The Washington Post. The new structure, which adds a new division focused on services and social media journalism under the supervision of a new editor, would have moved much of the Post’s editorial output under her supervision.
Lewis temporarily replaces Buzbee with Matt Murray, former editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal. Murray will lead the Post newsroom as executive editor through the election, at which time he will transition to lead the division focused on social media and services journalism.
Thereafter, a new editor, Robert Winnett, will take charge of the company’s main areas of coverage. For the past decade, Winnett has led news operations at The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph.
David Shipley will continue to run the Post’s opinion section. All three (Winnett, Murray and Shipley) will report directly to Mr. Lewis.
Murray, 58, was introduced to the Post newsroom on Monday, at a public meeting that began with a long round of applause for Ms. Buzbee, according to several people who attended. During the meeting, Post reporters questioned Mr. Lewis and Mr. Murray about the lack of diversity in the hires replacing Ms. Buzbee: Mr. Murray, Mr. Winnett and Mr. Shipley are white men.
According to a recording obtained by The New York Times, one of the Washington Post’s star political reporters, Ashley Parker, asked Lewis how the newspaper had arrived at his decision, adding that a skeptical interpretation might be that Lewis was simply hiring his associates to help run The Post.
“When you were here before, you spoke very movingly about how you care about diversity, and people talk about diversity, but then when things get tough, they say, ‘Well, I looked around and I couldn’t find anyone.’ nobody’. ”said Ms. Parker.
In response, Lewis said that diversity would be a “constant commitment” at The Post, adding that he had “the most diverse masthead The Journal has ever had” during his years at Dow Jones.
Mr. Murray is a longtime confidant of Mr. Lewis, who appointed him to The Wall Street Journal’s top job in 2018. Mr. Murray held a wide variety of editorial roles for more than two decades at The Journal and led the newspaper during the coronavirus pandemic.
The editorial change comes at a delicate time for The Washington Post. The newspaper is preparing to cover the final stretch of the presidential election, including the nominating conventions in Chicago and Milwaukee this summer. It is highly unusual to replace the top editor of a major American newspaper during this period.
At the town meeting two weeks ago, Lewis rattled off a list of priorities that included “build it,” “fix it” and “say it.” Lewis revealed that The Post was in dire straits, with more than $70 million in losses over the past year and a 50 percent audience decline over the same period.