Inside Will Lewis's tumultuous two years as publisher of the Washington Post

"We are going to turn this thing around, but let's not sugarcoat it: it needs turning around, right? Lewis said. We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. I can't sugarcoat it any more. So I've had to take decisive, urgent action to set us on a different path."

"It turned out to be one of the few times that Lewis would address the whole company. On Saturday evening, Lewis, 56, abruptly announced his resignation, just three days after the Post slashed nearly a third of its entire staff in one of the largest layoffs in US media history. Instead of putting the Post on a more promising financial path, Lewis's two years were marked by controversy, clashes with staff and jargon-heavy initiatives that didn't seem to amount to much."

Will Lewis, a veteran of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, replaced Fred Ryan as publisher after five months in the role. Lewis warned staff the Post was losing money, its audience had halved, and urgent action was needed. Three days after massive layoffs that cut nearly a third of the newsroom, Lewis abruptly resigned. The layoffs provoked anger aimed at Lewis and owner Jeff Bezos. Top editor Matt Murray delivered the news to staff by Zoom. Lewis's tenure was characterized by controversy, clashes with employees, jargon-heavy initiatives, and decisions that included dismantling parts of the sports coverage.

Read at www.theguardian.com