When Washington Post staff gathered in the newsroom in early May to celebrate the publication's three Pulitzer Prize wins, one person was conspicuously absent: Will Lewis, the company's publisher and chief executive officer.
Lewis was in New York meeting with Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, who was in town for the Met Gala, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting.
The two men had been discussing a restructuring aimed at turning The Washington Post around, including creating a “third newsroom” within the paper to focus on new editorial content, an idea that Mr. Bezos approved of, according to one of the people and another person familiar with the discussions.
Lewis' decision to go ahead with the plan this month rocked the Post, where its editor-in-chief, Sally Buzbee, suddenly resigned, rattling many on the editorial staff. Since then, revelations about Lewis' handling of the years-old scandal have raised questions about his ethics before and after joining the Post and even whether he could survive in the job.
So far, Mr. Bezos has appeared to back Mr. Lewis, who joined the Paper this year, and he recently voiced his support for him during one of his regular conversations with Mr. Lewis, according to two people familiar with the conversations.
Bezos' decision to reshape The Post underscores the central role he plays at the paper, which he bought for $250 million more than a decade ago. Bezos spends much of his time on other projects, including his space company, Blue Origin, and leaves day-to-day operations and editorial strategy to his CEO and editor-in-chief. But ultimately, he is the most important person at The Post.
He selected The Post's chief executive officer and set the business agenda, approved the paper's budget and advised the paper on business matters through regular conference calls with the CEO and occasional meetings with management, according to people familiar with his dealings with the paper.
According to people who have spoken with him, he believes the Post can grow to 100 million paying subscribers, which would put the paper far ahead of its competitors (the Post currently has about 2.5 million paying subscribers).
In Mr. Buzbee's final conversation with Mr. Bezos before he resigned, Mr. Bezos encouraged Mr. Buzbee to run a “third newsroom” that would oversee service journalism and social media, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
In the past, Mr. Bezos has sometimes urged Mr. Buzbee to think boldly when considering ambitious digital initiatives, two other people said.
Bezos did not respond to multiple requests for comment. In a statement, the Washington Post said, “We appreciate our owners' continued support and commitment to The Washington Post.”
In the first seven years after Bezos bought the Washington Post, its editorial staff more than doubled and subscriber numbers soared, driven by the paper's aggressive coverage of the Trump administration. But Lewis recently told editorial staff that The Post's readership has fallen by half since the 2020 election, and the company stands to lose $77 million in 2023.
Mr. Bezos began paying more attention to acquisitions last year as he noticed growing business problems. The company announced in June that Fred Ryan, who had been its chief executive since 2014, would step down and be replaced on an interim basis by Patty Stonesifer, a veteran technology executive and close ally of Mr. Bezos.
Mr. Stonesifer organized a meeting at The Post's headquarters in October between Mr. Bezos and top editors and company executives. During the meeting, Mr. Bezos asked questions about reporting, many of which focused on how the Post could turn stories into products that would help its users, according to two people familiar with his remarks. Mr. Bezos also focused on attracting new readers, especially those in the middle of the country.
During a meeting with Washington Post political staff on the same day, Mr. Bezos also asked about how the paper covers threats to democracy and how it plans to engage with younger readers on social media, the people said, adding that Mr. Bezos was interested in the overall strategy rather than focusing on specific stories.
At the time, Bezos was also involved in a Washington Post project to reach a wider audience. The Amazon founder has long pushed the Post to try new things to expand its readership, at one point suggesting it rewrite stories from other news outlets, but Buzbee opted to prioritize its own journalism.
The project began with The Washington Post's opinion section, building a new network of opinion writers. Bezos was approached to pilot the program with a contributor in Kansas City, and some form of the project is still in the works.
After Mr. Stonesifer worked with recruiting firm Thatcherman to find a permanent CEO, he hired Mr. Lewis, a reporter turned news executive.
Before Lewis was hired, The Washington Post investigated allegations that he was linked to one of the darkest periods in British journalism history. Lewis said that while working for Rupert Murdoch's News Corp more than a decade ago, he was tasked with resolving the phone-tapping scandal that led to the closure of one of Britain's most popular tabloid newspapers. Some victims have accused Lewis of helping to destroy evidence of wrongdoing, allegations he has repeatedly denied.
Ms. Stonesifer investigated the aftermath of the scandal, and she was satisfied with his explanation and convinced he was the right person to run The Washington Post, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Lewis, a British national, was named CEO in November after having dinner with Stonesifer and Bezos at his mansion in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington and took up his new role in January.
Things had seemed relatively calm until this month, when Mr. Lewis replaced Mr. Buzbee. After Mr. Buzbee resigned, The New York Times reported that Mr. Buzbee had clashed with Mr. Lewis in mid-May over a decision to cover a court decision related to a phone-tapping scandal in which Mr. Lewis and other executives were implicated. Mr. Lewis has denied pressuring Mr. Buzbee.
NPR reporter David Folkenflik later confirmed the report, saying that after Lewis was hired by The Washington Post, he offered an exclusive interview in exchange for ignoring the wiretapping scandal story — a bad deal in American journalism. Lewis acknowledged having private conversations with Folkenflik, whom he called an “activist.”
The revelation infuriated many of the paper's reporters. Lewis subsequently issued a conciliatory memo to Washington Post staff and met with them in small groups this week to explain his vision for the Post and his thoughts on the events of the past two weeks. Post staff were sent an internal survey on June 5 seeking feedback on Lewis' new plans for the newsroom, including whether they support the need for a third newsroom and how they view the use of AI.
Last Saturday, after a week of intense scrutiny, Lewis sent the following email: “It's been a very stressful week, to be honest.”
The email, obtained by The Times, was sent to a private list of subscribers to Lewis' reading recommendations newsletter, which is sent from a non-Post email address.
Lewis makes no mention of professional stress, instead regaling readers with the story of his mother's cat, Gabbro, who went missing in London.
“Thankfully, Gabbro is back in his mother's hands and we can all enjoy a peaceful weekend,” he concluded.