On Sunday evening, minutes after Will Lewis, the Washington Post’s chief executive, informed staffers of the replacement of the paper’s editor-in-chief, Sally Buzbee, executives gathered on a conference call to hear one last time their boss.
Ms. Buzbee told them that a new organizational structure created by Mr. Lewis — effectively dividing the Washington Post’s newsroom and opinion section into three smaller divisions — was not working for her. She added that Mr. Lewis was pushing for aggressive steps to turn around the Post and asked editors to reserve judgment for now.
“I would have preferred to stay to help us through this period, but we got to the point where that was no longer possible,” Ms. Buzbee said, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The stunning call — which some participants described as funereal — added to the growing tension between the newsroom and Mr. Lewis, who has set out to remake The Post since its debut in January.
Many reporters and editors believed Ms. Buzbee would stay in office at least until the November presidential election. Just two weeks ago, Mr. Lewis and Ms. Buzbee addressed Post staff together at a long-awaited public meeting.
But Ms. Buzbee chafed at Mr. Lewis’s plan to divide the Post newsroom into segments, according to two people familiar with his thinking, and the two men quickly reached an impasse. Mr. Lewis said she could lead one of the newsroom’s two segments, but she resigned instead, according to a person with knowledge of the interactions.
The reorganization would have been an effective demotion for Ms. Buzbee, who was in charge of all news content at the Washington Post. The new structure, which adds a new division focused on service journalism and social media under the supervision of a new editor-in-chief, would have removed much of the Post’s editorial output from his oversight.
Mr. Lewis temporarily replaces Ms. Buzbee with Matt Murray, the former executive editor of the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Murray will lead the Post newsroom as executive editor until the election, after which he will lead the division focused on service journalism and social media.
A new editor-in-chief, Robert Winnett, will then take charge of the company’s main coverage areas. For the past decade, Mr Winnett has led the news operations of the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph.
David Shipley will continue to lead the Post’s opinion section. All three — Mr. Winnett, Mr. Murray and Mr. Shipley — will report directly to Mr. Lewis.
Mr. Murray, 58, was introduced to the Post newsroom on Monday, during a public meeting that began with a long round of applause for Ms. Buzbee, according to several people present. During the meeting, executives were questioned by Post reporters about the lack of diversity in the hires replacing Ms. Buzbee – Mr. Murray, Mr. Winnett and Mr. Shipley are white men.
According to a recording obtained by The New York Times, one of the Washington Post’s star political reporters, Ashley Parker, asked how the paper arrived at its decision, adding that a skeptical interpretation might be that Mr. Lewis was simply engaging his partners to help run The Post.
“When you were here before, you spoke very movingly about how you care about diversity – and people talk about diversity – but then when things happen, they say, ‘Well, I’ I looked around and couldn’t find anyone,’ Ms. Parker said.
In response, Mr Murray said diversity would be a “constant commitment” at the Post, adding that he had “the most diverse letterhead the Journal has ever had” during his years as editor in chief of the Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Murray is a longtime confidant of Mr. Lewis, who appointed him to the Wall Street Journal’s top job in 2018. Mr. Murray has held a wide variety of editorial positions for more than two decades at the Journal and led the newspaper during the coronavirus pandemic.
The editorial change comes at a delicate time for the Washington Post. The newspaper is preparing to cover the final stretch of the presidential election, including the nominating conventions in Chicago and Milwaukee this summer. It is very unusual to replace the editor-in-chief of a major American newspaper during this period.
At the plenary meeting two weeks ago, Mr Lewis outlined a list of priorities including “build it”, “fix it” and “tell it”. Mr Lewis revealed that The Post was in dire straits, with more than $70 million in losses over the last year and an audience decline of 50 per cent over the same period.
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 senior ranks.
Toward the end of Monday’s meeting, Kainaz Amaria, the Post’s national visual business editor, said Ms. Buzbee’s treatment “didn’t seem fair,” adding that the circumstances of her departure could make it difficult to trust in the new leaders.
“Starting like this is very difficult,” Ms. Amaria said, according to the recording.
