When Donald Trump was elected president of the United States in November 2016, the Washington Post‘s front page read, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” In reality, these Trump years were extraordinary for the newspaper. But, like CNN, the daily that exposed the Watergate scandal and brought down Richard Nixon can’t quite get over the post-Trump era.
The Post has lost half its audience, with 50 million unique visitors by the end of 2023, compared with 101 million in 2020, while its subscriber base has fallen from 3 million to 2.5 million, according to the New York Times. It accumulated losses of $77 million (€71.7 million) last year. It was against this backdrop that Sally Buzbee, executive editor for the past three years, abruptly announced her resignation on June 2.
The journalist, who had spent most of her career at the Associated Press, was immediately replaced by Matt Murray, former editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal, who’s now in a temporary role. The timing of this change is highly unusual, as the US enters the most active phase of the presidential election, with the first Trump-Biden debate in late June, two party conventions this summer and the election in early November.
Economic recovery
Behind the Post‘s financial problems, other stories within the story have emerged, notably the deteriorating relationship between Buzbee and the paper’s British publisher and CEO, Will Lewis. Trust broke down definitively when Lewis tried to prevent the publication of an article on his past activities, when he worked for the tabloids belonging to Rupert Murdoch’s group.
The primary issue is economic recovery. Lewis, former CEO of Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, was appointed head of the Washington Post to turn around a flagging title bought for $250 million in 2013 by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The daily, which has 2,600 employees including 1,000 journalists, announced at the end of 2023 that it will cut 240 jobs. Its digital revenues are falling faster than its print revenues. “To be direct, we are in a hole, and we have been for some time,” Lewis told his staff on Monday, May 6. “People are not reading your stuff. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”
Reorganization
Lewis has decided to reorganize the newsroom into three independent divisions: news, opinion and a third that is supposed to focus on social media, such as video, as well as service journalism. “The aim is to give the millions of Americans – who feel traditional news is not for them but still want to be kept informed – compelling, exciting and accurate news where they are and in the style that they want,” wrote the Post. Lewis explained that “by creating three, strong, journalism functions – Core, Service/Social and Opinions – we are taking a definitive step away from the ‘one size fits all’ approach and moving towards meeting our audiences where they are.”
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