And now his watch is ended. Sir Will Lewis fell on his sword last night, resigning as CEO and publisher of the Washington Post. “After two years of transformation at the Post, now is the right time for me to step aside,” Lewis said in an email to staff. In his note, Lewis thanked only the Post’s proprietor Jeff Bezos.
Cockburn hears that least one journalist replied to Lewis’s email, “Bye, bitch.”
Lewis had a troubled and confusing tenure. In his final week, the Post cut 30 percent of its staff, including the full books section and scores of foreign reporters. The publication also folded its vaunted sports section into features. “I believe the new tagline was ‘recent storytelling for all of America’ when I left, but I don’t see how this move is going to reach all of America,” a former Post staffer told Cockburn. Scores of Post employees protested outside their Farragut Square office Wednesday. Former Post star Ashley Parker characterized the reductions as a “murder” in the Atlantic.
Londoner Lewis, however, wasn’t on the call when the cuts were made. He was pictured at a Super Bowl event in San Francisco Thursday, to the ire of current and former “Posties.”
Post staffers believe the photo at the Super Bowl may have been the final nail in Lewis’s coffin, but that Bezos was also unhappy that none of his CEO’s initiatives, such as the much mythologized “third newsroom,” had paid off. “The ‘big idea’ was always his third newsroom, a younger/new audience play that took maybe six different forms in 18 months,” said a former Post staffer.
The word “resignation” is therefore perhaps generous to Lewis. “All signs are that Will Lewis was fired and did not step aside of his own volition,” a WaPo staffer familiar with the matter told Cockburn yesterday evening. “It appears Jeff saw the coverage, understood that Will’s ideas were all duds, was absent during the firings and called him today to say ‘you’re out.’ Notice the public statement does not thank Will.”
“What ideas did he have? He had no ideas. He spent his time socializing around town and has nothing to show for it,” one Post reporter told Cockburn.
Lewis spent much of his two-year tenure embroiled in conflict with the Post Guild, the paper’s union. He made promises of regular, open conversations and convening to quell the disquiet, yet ultimately only hosted one town-hall meeting. Lewis also ditched the Post’s slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” as he considered it “stodgy.”
“When you start at the Post, you get the feeling that you’re part of something special, this incredible historic institution. I think he was pretty condescending about that from day one, and almost had this mocking attitude about people’s respect for it. That definitely turned people off,” a former staffer said.
His ouster may not signal a great shift in direction from the Post’s proprietor, however. “The idea that Bezos is walking away from the cuts is nonsense,” another Post insider told Cockburn.
Lewis is perhaps the highest-profile of the several Brits who have crossed the pond in the past few years, though some Posties don’t consider his nationality a major factor in his downfall. “Being British isn’t an excuse for being useless,” one said. Quite.
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