More than 400 Washington Post staffers sent a letter to owner Jeff Bezos, blasting the paper’s direction and urging him to sit down for a meeting.
"We are deeply alarmed by recent leadership decisions that have led readers to question the integrity of this institution, broken with a tradition of transparency, and prompted some of our most distinguished colleagues to leave, with more departures imminent," the letter states.
While the letter to Bezos doesn’t mention Post publisher and CEO William Lewis by name, it strongly suggested the staff had lost faith in the newspaper’s leadership.
Over the past year, Lewis has made disruptive changes to The Post and been accused of harboring hostility toward the newsroom. He has also continued to face questions about his journalistic integrity relating to his past work as a senior executive at Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers.
Bezos, the billionaire Amazon founder, hired Lewis little more than a year ago, charging him with turning around the money-losing publication. Bezos has been a mostly hands-off owner of The Post, and in some ways that has been a blessing, giving the newspaper’s journalists autonomy to write critically about Bezos, Amazon and related topics.
But the owner’s absence has cut both ways, and many staffers have said they wished he would become more involved, particularly on the business side of the institution.
The letter to Bezos was intended to be a private plea for help, not a public venting session. But newsrooms are often gossipy places, and the letter leaked out on Wednesday, first to David Folkenflik of NPR. (CNN)
"This is about retaining our competitive edge, restoring trust that has been lost, and reestablishing a relationship with leadership based on open communication," the letter continues. "We urge you to come to our office and meet with Post leaders, as you have in the past, about what has been happening at the Post. We understand the need for change, and we are eager to deliver the news in innovative ways. But we need a clear vision we can believe in."
Conservatives argued the paper should take a second look at these staffers.
Jeff Bezos should terminate all 400. They are upset that the Post is no longer an activist organization, that Jen Rubin no longer wants to call it home. He should take the opportunity to lower the Post's bottom line https://t.co/aBYGrihlOt
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) January 15, 2025
400 @washingtonpost journalists lectured their boss @JeffBezos about how he should run the Post
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) January 16, 2025
My 2 cents - fire everyone of these disrespectful, entitled snowflakes
"We are deeply alarmed by recent leadership decisions that have led readers to question the integrity of…
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