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Will Lewis acknowledges ‘difficult decisions’ made during his rocky, two-year tenure.
Published On 8 Feb 2026
The Washington Post’s CEO has announced he is quitting the job, days after the newspaper slashed a third of its staff.
CEO and publisher Will Lewis shared the decision in a message to employees on Saturday, which was later posted on X by the paper’s White House bureau chief.
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“After two years of transformation at the Washington Post, now is the right time for me to step aside,” said Lewis.
The Post, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, said chief financial officer Jeff D’Onofrio will take over the role immediately.
Lewis’s two-year tenure at the influential US newspaper was marked by turmoil, including multiple rounds of layoffs and questions over editorial independence. Those concerns intensified after the publication announced it would not make a 2024 presidential endorsement, a move critics said was aimed at placating then-candidate Donald Trump.
The Post lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers and some $100m in 2024 revenue in the wake of that decision.
Lewis also drew scrutiny in 2024 over an attempt to bring on his former colleague, British journalist Robert Winnett, as top editor, after reports alleged some of his past reporting relied on fraudulently obtained records. Winnett eventually did not take the role.
Lewis was absent from a staff meeting last week in which employees were told they would be notified by email whether they had lost their jobs. Hundreds of journalists were among those made redundant, including the paper’s entire Middle East roster and its Kyiv, Ukraine-based correspondent.
In his note to staff, Lewis said “difficult decisions” had been taken during his leadership to secure the paper’s long-term sustainability.
‘Destruction of great American journalism’
The Washington Post Guild, the union representing staff members, called Lewis’s exit long overdue.
“His legacy will be the attempted destruction of a great American journalism institution,” the Guild said in a statement. “But it’s not too late to save The Post. Jeff Bezos must immediately rescind these layoffs or sell the paper to someone willing to invest in its future.”
Bezos made no mention of Lewis in a statement announcing D’Onofrio as publisher, saying new leadership is positioned to lead the paper into “an exciting and thriving next chapter”.
“The Post has an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity,” Bezos said. “Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus.”
