Leadership exit follows sweeping layoffs, newsroom closures, and subscriber losses shaking America’s once-dominant newspaper.
Washington Post publisher Will Lewis announced Saturday that he is stepping down, just days after the newspaper disclosed plans to cut roughly one-third of its workforce in one of the most severe restructurings in its history.
In an internal email to staff, cited by The Associated Press, Lewis said the layoffs reflected “difficult decisions” taken to secure the long-term sustainability of The Washington Post. According to AP, neither Lewis nor the paper’s owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos, attended a staff meeting earlier in the week where the cuts were formally announced.
The Post confirmed that its chief financial officer, Jeff D’Onofrio, has been appointed acting publisher and chief executive officer. D’Onofrio joined the organization in June last year.
Lewis, a British-born executive who previously held senior roles at The Wall Street Journal, took over as publisher in January 2024. His tenure was turbulent from the outset, marked by repeated rounds of layoffs, an unsuccessful newsroom reorganization, and the eventual departure of executive editor Sally Buzbee. The paper has also acknowledged sharp subscriber declines in recent months.
While job cuts had long been expected, the scale of the latest layoffs shocked staff. Measures included shutting down the Post’s long-standing sports section, slashing foreign and metropolitan coverage, and eliminating its dedicated photography team—moves that underscore the depth of the financial and structural crisis facing legacy American media.
