Sally Buzbee, the Editor-in-Chief of The Washington Post, has resigned from her position, as announced by the newspaper's president and CEO on Sunday evening. Buzbee, a veteran journalist at the Associated Press, became the first woman to hold this position since the newspaper's inception in 1877.
Matt Murray, the former editor of The Wall Street Journal and the previous CEO of Dow Jones, will replace her until the presidential elections in November, according to the newspaper's president and CEO, William Lewis. No reason for Buzbee's resignation was provided.
In an email to staff, Lewis expressed his desire to launch a "new division" this year, separate from the editorial team, dedicated to "service journalism and social media journalism," which will incorporate the use of artificial intelligence. Murray will oversee this new division after the elections, while Robert Winett will supervise "core coverage areas" such as politics, economics, and opinion pieces. Winett has spent a significant part of his career at the Telegraph Media Group, which owns the conservative British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
This change at the helm of the newspaper is considered “the most significant action” for William Lewis since he became CEO in January, according to The Washington Post. Lewis recently acknowledged that the newspaper incurred significant losses in 2023 amounting to approximately $77 million. To reduce costs, a voluntary departure plan has been proposed for hundreds of employees by the end of 2023.
According to The Washington Post, in recent months, Lewis has appointed several of his former colleagues from Dow Jones to key positions. Media magnate Rupert Murdoch is the major shareholder of Dow Jones, and his family runs Fox Corporation, which owns the Fox News channel favored by American conservatives.
