Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has no intention of succumbing to the angry mob in his newsroom.
At a staff meeting held after Sally Buzbee abruptly resigned as editor-in-chief of The Washington Post earlier this month, CEO and Publisher Will Lewis told disgruntled staff that the paper needed to embrace a new vision and a new direction.
“Certainly, at The Washington Post, we can’t continue business as usual. The world is rapidly evolving, and as a company, we need to change too.”
“We’re losing a lot of money. Our readership has been cut in half over the last few years. People aren’t reading your stories. You can’t fake it anymore,” Lewis said. “So I had to take decisive, urgent steps to track down the best people I’ve ever worked with and move on.”
The change sent shock waves through The Washington Post’s newsroom. The most dissatisfaction among staff was According to Vanity FairThe diversity composition of newspaper leadership.
One staffer even complained that “four white guys” would now be running the Post.
Over the next few weeks, “Confusion” News It has been reported that there is “anger” swirling within the Post’s editorial staff. that “Morale has plummeted.” The question of whether Lewis will continue to lead, calls for Lewis to resign; Multiple Attempts Publicly slander Lewis — Including Post reporters“Almost everyone is terrified” by the situation, one Post editorial staffer said. Said.
But the gnashing of teeth doesn’t seem likely to force Lewis out of his job.
On Tuesday, Bezos said I bought a post More than a decade ago, I emailed The Washington Post’s top leaders and told them the status quo wasn’t working.
he Reportedly a carbon copy In an email, Lewis voiced his support for the CEO.
“As you’ve probably heard from Will already, I wanted to speak out directly: The Washington Post’s journalistic standards and ethics will not change,” Bezos wrote. “To be sure, we cannot continue business as usual at The Washington Post. The world is rapidly evolving, and we as a business need to change.”
There are important reasons why Bezos reversed course and reaffirmed his support for Lewis. lost Last year it made $77 million and since 2020 it has accounted for half of the viewership.
Successful businessmen like Bezos know that these numbers show something is seriously wrong and that desperate change is needed.
But that’s also why Bezos appointed and continues to back Lewis, who led The Wall Street Journal’s massive growth in revenue and readership between 2014 and 2020.
Results matter, and the diversity demands of rank-and-file employees are irrelevant.
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