Will Lewis

Thursday

Tina Brown

How Jeff Bezos destroyed the Washington Post

The debacle of the Washington Post’s hara-kiri last week dispatched the myth that a tech billionaire could save journalism. Jeff Bezos’s purchase of the paper in 2013 was greeted with euphoria, not just because he was a big fat wallet who would absorb the losses, but because we thought his Amazon wizardry was transferable to journalism’s battered business model. The man was a digital titan, for God’s sake. He started selling books online from his garage and built it into a $2.2 trillion consumer nirvana, with a Blue Origin side hustle of suborbital rockets. Surely he would figure out innovative new ways to bring the Post’s rigorous reporting to hungry new audiences?

Sunday

Cockburn

The end of Will Lewis’s Washington Post experiment

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.

Friday

Cockburn

Is a DC ‘journalist brain-drain’ even possible?

The flawed logic of the anti-Trump sex strike No one really knows what a second Trump administration will hold for America — given the breadth of his coalition of contradictory factions, some of his voters are bound to be disappointed. But the prospect of the Donald’s mere presence back in the White House has led to a spasm of outrage on social media, with young women and members of the LGBTQIAA+ community fearful of the erosion of “rights” in case Trump, J.D. Vance and the Republicans eschew the campaign manifesto and draw instead from the Heritage Foundation’s more hardline Project 2025 agenda.Drastic measures are being mooted.

dc

Friday

Cockburn

Jennifer Rubin’s resignation from the Washington Post is surely imminent

The non-endorsement is the new endorsement! Hot on the heels of the Los Angeles Times’s decision not to endorse a candidate in the presidential race, a controversial call made by the paper's owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong that has been met with multiple staff resignations, the Washington Post is following suit. A statement published Friday reads: "The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates." Public statements from leading Post personalities have been aghast. Columnist Karen Attiah tweeted, "Jesus Christ." Then, an hour later, "..." Then an hour later still, "What an absolute stab in the back.

jennifer rubin

Tuesday

Stephen L. Miller

Inmates are running the newsroom asylums

Say what you want about Washington Post hypochondriac tech reporter Taylor Lorenz, but she was correct when she said that “the journalism industry is overrun by rich, elite, underqualified entitled, nepo babies.”In several high-profile mainstream media outlets, the inmates are still attempting to wrest control away from those put in charge of running the asylum.This was evident last week when Washington Post CEO Will Lewis announced the sudden departure of executive editor Sally Buzbee, who oversaw a tumultuous period as the Post slid off the deep end of progressive politics. Lewis was blunt with his staff, announcing a restructuring of staff resources. When Lewis appointed new management, staff members reportedly asked him if he had interviewed any women or people of color.