Sally Buzbee, editor-in-chief of The Washington Post, unexpectedly resigned on Sunday, weeks after her relationship with the company’s CEO, Will Lewis, deteriorated. In mid-May, Buzbee and Lewis clashed over whether to publish a story about Lewis’ British hacking scandal.
Sources say Buzbee informed Lewis that the newsroom planned to cover a judge’s upcoming ruling in a longstanding British legal case involving Prince Harry and others against Rupert Murdoch’s tabloids.
The judge was expected to decide whether Lewis’s name could be added to a list of executives accused of concealing hacking evidence. Lewis argued the case didn’t warrant coverage, but Buzbee insisted on publishing the article.
This interaction unsettled Buzbee, who sought advice from confidants outside The Washington Post. The Post published the article on May 21 when the judge ruled that Lewis could be added to the case.
Although Lewis didn’t prevent its publication, the incident weighed heavily on Buzbee as she contemplated her future at the paper.
Why did Sally Buzbee Buzbee?
Buzbee’s resignation wasn’t solely due to the hacking case coverage. She was already considering her future because of a reorganization plan proposed by Lewis in April. Lewis had offered Buzbee a position overseeing a new division focused on social media and service journalism, which she saw as a demotion from her role as executive editor, overseeing the entire news report.
Appointed by Jeff Bezos, The Post’s owner, Lewis was tasked with revamping the publication late last year amid declining audience numbers and significant financial losses.
Former CEO of Dow Jones, Lewis has been navigating a strategy to overhaul the business. He decided to split the editorial ranks into three divisions: a core newsroom covering politics, business, and other topics; an opinion section; and a new division for social media and service journalism, including wellness and lifestyle coverage. Previously, The Washington Post was divided into news and opinion sections.
Lewis told Buzbee she could help recruit the editor for the core news operation. He later chose Robert Winnett, an editor at The Daily Telegraph and a former colleague of Lewis.
The conversation about the phone hacking coverage occurred during an executive meeting outside The Post newsroom, where executives discussed Lewis’s planned changes. Top editors sometimes alert executives about sensitive stories before publication. For example, in 2013, Martin Baron, Buzbee’s predecessor, informed the publisher about stories on the National Security Agency, and in 1971, Ben Bradlee alerted the former owner about the Pentagon Papers.
At a tense staff meeting on Monday, Lewis defended his business strategy, highlighting The Post’s $77 million loss the previous year and a 50% audience decline since 2020. “Let’s not sugarcoat it. It needs turning around, right?” he said.
“We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff.”
“I’ve had to take decisive, urgent action to set us on a different path, sourcing talent that I have worked with that are the best of the best of the best.”