One notable absence was the publication’s CEO, Will Lewis, when The Washington Post team gathered in the office in earlier May to observe the publication’s receipt of three Pulitzer Prizes.
According to two people with knowledge of the gathering, Mr. Lewis was in New York conference with Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon and the owner of The Post, who was also present at the Met Gala.
The couple had been talking about a change to focus on to help The Post turn around its organization. One of those individuals and another person with access to the deals mentioned setting up a” next office” inside The Post to concentrate on new editorial items.
The Post has been shaken by Mr. Lewis ‘ determination to proceed with that program this month. Sally Buzbee, the writer’s executive director, immediately resigned, upsetting many in the office. Since then, inquiries about Mr. Lewis ‘ response to a long-running scandal have become a source of concerns about his morals before and after he joined The Post, and even questions about whether or not he would continue to work.
So far, Mr. Bezos appears to be standing by Mr. Lewis, who joined the report this year. Mr. Bezos just expressed his assistance for Mr. Lewis during one of their regular meetings, according to two individuals with expertise of the discussion.
The Post’s decision to reshape it was a major development for Mr. Bezos, who also purchased it for$ 250 million more than ten years ago. Mr. Bezos devotes more time to various projects, including his room company Blue Origin, lilacing the chief executive and best editors with day-to-day operations and editorial planning. But he is unfortunately The Post’s most significant figure.
According to several individuals with information of his interactions with people at the news, he has chosen The Post’s chief executives and set the course of action for its company. He approves The Post’s resources and provides business advice to the news through normal telephone calling with the CEO and sporadic meetings with the organization’s leadership team.
He has said that, in the face of opposition from those who have spoken to him, he believes The Post could surpass its current standing of 100 million paying members. ( The Post now has about 2.5 million paying subscribers. )
According to a person with knowledge of the conversations, Mr. Buzbee’s last conversation with Mr. Bezos before she resigned encouraged her to move the” next office” overseeing company media and cultural advertising.
In the past, Mr. Bezos had often urged Ms. Buzbee to suppose bravely when considering ambitious online activities, two other people said.
Mr. Bezos did not respond to various requests for comment. The Post said in a assertion:” We’re thankful for our owner’s continued support and commitment to The Washington Post”.
In the first seven years after Mr. Bezos bought The Post, the office staff more than doubled and membership increased quickly, helped by the writer’s robust monitoring on the Trump presidency. But The Post’s market has halved since the 2020 election, Mr. Lewis just told the newspaper, and the business lost$ 77 million in 2023.
Mr. Bezos, aware of the growing business issues, started paying more attention to his order next month. In June, the firm announced that Fred Ryan, the chief administrative since 2014, may be stepping down and that Patty Stonesifer, a former tech professional and a confidant of Mr. Bezos, had partially take over.
In October, Ms. Stonesifer held meetings with Mr. Bezos and senior editors and business leaders at The Post’s headquarters. According to two people with whom Mr. Bezos had contacts throughout the meetings, many of his inquiries were focused on how The Post could turn its stories into products that would be useful to its users. He was also trying to get new readers, especially those who were in the middle of the nation.
Mr. Bezos also inquired about how the newspaper was covering threats to democracy and how it planned to interact with younger readers on social media, according to the people who had met with the Post that day. He also explained that Mr. Bezos did not concentrate on specific stories but was concerned about the overall strategy.
At the time, Mr. Bezos was also involved with a Post project to reach out to a broader audience. The Post had long been pushed by the Amazon founder to try new things to expand its audience. He once suggested rewriting articles for publications other than the one, but Ms. Buzbee favored giving original reporting a chance.
The project, which originated in The Post’s opinion section, involved creating a new network of opinion writers. Mr. Bezos was given a pilot version of the program with Kansas City contributors, and some aspects of the project are still being considered.
He hired Mr. Lewis, a former reporter turned news executive, after Ms. Stonesifer worked with the recruiting firm Sucherman to find a permanent chief executive.
The Post examined allegations that Mr. Lewis had connections to one of the post’s darkest times in the history of British media. Mr. Lewis claims that while working for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for more than ten years, he was given the task of fixing a phone-hacking scandal that caused the closure of one of the country’s most well-known tabloids. Some victims have alleged that Mr. Lewis had repeatedly refuted allegations that he had helped conceal wrongdoing.
Ms. Stonesifer researched the aftermath of the scandal, according to a person familiar with the matter. She left feeling happy with his explanation and certain that he was the ideal person to run The Post, according to the source.
Mr. Lewis, who is British, was named chief executive in November, after a dinner with Ms. Stonesifer and Mr. Bezos at his mansion in Washington’s Kalorama neighborhood, and started in his new role in January.
Prior to Mr. Lewis’s this month replacement, things seemed a little calm. The New York Times reported that Ms. Buzbee and Mr. Lewis had a fight after she resigned over a cover-up of a court decision involving him and other executives in a case involving the phone-hacking scandal. Mr. Lewis has denied pressuring Ms. Buzbee.
A NPR reporter, David Folkenflik, later confirmed that reporting and said that Mr. Lewis, after he had been hired for his job at The Post, had offered him an exclusive interview in exchange for ignoring a story on the phone- hacking scandal, a quid pro quo that is frowned upon in American journalism. Mr. Lewis has acknowledged having an off- the- record conversation with Mr. Folkenflik, whom he called an “activist”.
Many newspaper reporters were irked by the revelations. Since then, Mr. Lewis has met with Post staff members in small groups this week to discuss his thoughts on The Post and the recent events. He has since issued a conciliatory memo to them. On June 5, Post employees received an internal survey asking for their opinions on Mr. Lewis’s new plans for the newsroom, including whether they favor the establishment of a third newsroom or how they feel about using A. I.
Last Saturday, after a week of intense scrutiny, Mr. Lewis sent out an email:” Let me tell you, I have had a very stressful week”.
The email, obtained by The New York Times, went to a private list of people who subscribe to Mr. Lewis’s reading recommendations newsletter, which is sent from a non- Post email address.
Mr. Lewis made no mention of his professional stressors. Instead, he regaled readers with the tale of his mother’s cat, Gabbro, going missing in London.
” Thankfully, Gabbro is now back in my mother’s hands and we can all enjoy a restful weekend”, he signed off.
The New York Times article titled” How Jeff Bezos Is Trying To Fix The Washington Post” first appeared.
