Washington Post publisher and CEO William Lewis gave staff at the paper a reality check on Monday following the sudden departure of executive editor Sally Buzbee amid reorganization efforts.
Buzbee was reportedly “uncomfortable” with Lewis restructuring the Post’s newsroom and opinion sections into three smaller divisions, especially before the election, but Lewis was adamant about the changes.
According to the Post’s own reporting, the restructuring “left the newsroom reeling.”
During a staff meeting on Monday, he was frank about the state of the Post.
In one heated exchange with a Post staffer, Lewis warned that the newsroom cannot afford to be resistant to change, saying that “decisive, urgent” actions are needed for the company to survive upheaval within the media industry and a recent loss of subscribers and revenue.
“We are going to turn this thing around, but let’s not sugarcoat it. It needs turning around,” he said. “We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.” (WaPo)
Of course there were also staffers concerned about Lewis's "commitment to diversity" with his decision to bring Matt Murray on as a top Post editor and then have British journalist Robert Winnett take over leadership of the newsroom's main reporting areas after the election.
“The most cynical interpretation sort of feels like you chose two of your buddies to come in and help run The Post,” one female staff member said. “And we now have four White men running three newsrooms.”
The Washington Post is in crisis ... legacy media is dying.
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“We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore,” Lewis said pic.twitter.com/sfo2JsRvsD