Sally Buzbee, The Washington Post’s first female executive editor, abruptly stepped down after three years at the helm, CEO William Lewis announced Sunday.
Lewis confirmed Buzbee’s departure to staffers in an email on Sunday evening. Matt Murray, the former editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal, has been tapped as her replacement, according to The Washington Post.
It’s the biggest shakeup at the struggling newspaper since Lewis took over as CEO in January.
Lewis told employees that there are plans to launch “a new division of the newsroom” by the end of the year emphasizing “service and social media journalism” targeting audiences who “want to consume and pay for news differently from traditional offerings,” WaPo reported.
The new project will offer “millions of Americans — who feel traditional news is not for them but still want to be kept informed — compelling, exciting and accurate news where they are and in the style that they want,” he wrote.
Lewis said he will oversee the new division following the presidential election in November. Meanwhile, Robert Winnett, a veteran of Telegraph Media Group, will fill a newly created role of editor.
Before taking the reins at the Washington Post when Marty Baron retired, Buzbee had been executive editor and senior vice president of the Associated Press since early 2017, overseeing the AP’s massive global news wires operation.
Under her leadership in 2019, the AP won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting for its investigation detailing atrocities in the war in Yemen.
Buzbee’s exit comes amid major financial struggles at the newspaper, which lost $77 million last year, according to the publication’s own reporting.
In October, WaPo offered buyouts to hundreds of its employees in a dramatic effort to cut costs.
