On Sunday night, minutes after Will Lewis, chief executive of The Washington Post, announced to staff that the paper’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, would be replaced, managers gathered on a conference call to hear from their boss one last time.
Ms. Buzbee told them that the new organizational structure created by Mr. Lewis — effectively splitting the Washington Post’s news and opinion department into three smaller divisions — was not working for her. She added that Mr. Lewis was pushing for aggressive moves to overturn The Post’s fortunes and asked editors to withhold judgment for now.
“I would like to stay to help us get through this, but that has reached a point where it is not possible,” Ms. Buzbee said, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The startling call — which some attendees described as funeral — added to tensions between the newsroom and Mr. Lewis, who has been reworking The Post since he started in January.
Many reporters and editors believe that Ms. Buzbee will stay in office at least until the presidential election in November. Just two weeks ago, Mr. Lewis and Ms. Buzbee spoke together with The Post staff at a meeting. long-awaited all-hands meeting in which Mr. Lewis discussed his vision for The Post.
Mr. Lewis revealed plans to split The Post’s newsroom into segments and said she could run one of them, according to a person familiar with the interactive. Ms. Buzbee appeared uncomfortable with the idea, according to two people familiar with her thinking.
The reorganization could be an effective demotion for Ms. Buzbee, who was in charge of all news content at The Washington Post. The structure adds a department focused on service journalism and social media under the supervision of a new editor, which would have eliminated a large portion of The Post’s editorial output from supervision of Mrs. Buzbee.
On Sunday, Mr. Lewis told Ms. Buzbee that he was appointing someone else to her job, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.
Mr. Lewis temporarily replaced Ms. Buzbee with Matt Murray, former editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Murray will run The Post’s newsroom as executive editor through the election, at which point he will transition to running a division focused on service journalism and social media. According to a person with knowledge of their discussions, Mr. Lewis had been considering hiring Mr. Murray for a senior editing role at The Post for more than a month.
The new editor, Robert Winnett, will take over the company’s core reporting areas after the election. Over the past decade, Mr Winnett has run the news operations at The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph.
David Shipley will continue to run The Post’s opinion section. All three – Mr. Winnett, Mr. Murray and Mr. Shipley – will report directly to Mr. Lewis.
A spokesperson for The Washington Post declined to say whether Jeff Bezos, the newspaper’s owner, knew or approved of the leadership changes announced Sunday night.
Mr. Murray, 58, was introduced to The Post’s newsroom on Monday, according to several attendees, in a town hall meeting that began with a long round of applause for Ms. Buzbee. Under her leadership, the Post greatly expanded its editorial ranks and received six Pulitzer Prizes, three of them This year.
During Monday’s meeting, reporters for The Post criticized the executives for a lack of diversity in hiring Ms. Buzbee’s replacement — Mr. Murray, Mr. Winnett and Mr. Shipley are all white men.
According to a recording obtained by The New York Times, Ashley Parker, one of The Washington Post’s star political reporters, asked how the paper arrived at its decision, adding that a A skeptical explanation might be that Mr. Lewis simply hired his associates to help run The Post.
In many ways, Mr. Lewis is arranging a reunion with the people he worked with in the early chapters of his career. As publisher of The Wall Street Journal, he appointed Mr. Murray to the paper’s top editorship in 2018. And he worked with Mr. Winnett for many years, first at The Sunday Times and then The Telegraph.
“When you were here before, you spoke very movingly about how you care about diversity — and people talk about diversity — but then when pressed, they say, ‘Well, I looked around and couldn’t find anyone,’” Ms. Parker said.
In response, Mr. Murray said that diversity would be an “ongoing commitment” at The Post, adding that he had “the most diverse title The Journal has ever had” during his years as editor. top of The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Murray immediately became acquainted with The Post’s newsroom. On Monday, he began attending meetings at Ms. Buzbee’s old office on the seventh floor, hours after she suddenly left. Her name tag has been removed.
In a statement Monday, The Washington Post Guild said it was “troubled” by Ms. Buzbee’s sudden departure and the lack of diversity in The Post’s top ranks.
The editorial change comes at a sensitive time for The Washington Post. The newspaper is preparing to cover the presidential election, including the nominating conventions in Chicago and Milwaukee this summer. It is extremely unusual to replace the top editor of a major American newspaper during this period.
At the plenary meeting two weeks ago, Mr Lewis laid out a list of priorities including “build it”, “fix it” and “say it”. Mr. Lewis revealed that The Post is in serious trouble, with losses of more than $70 million over the past year and readership down 50% over the same period.
Near the end of Monday’s meeting, Kainaz Amaria, The Post’s national corporate images editor, said that Ms. Buzbee’s treatment “did not feel fair,” adding that the circumstances of her departure hers could make it difficult to trust the new leadership.
According to the recording, Ms. Amaria said: “To start like this is very difficult.
