Washington Post publisher seeks to crush newsroom dissent

Memo tells staffers it's his way or the highway

Embattled Washington Post publisher Will Lewis’s my-way-or-the-highway memo to staff on Wednesday threatens to destroy what’s left of the newsroom’s talent pool – and reputation.

The memo urges “those who do not feel aligned with the company’s plan” to take an immediate buyout and leave. Those who remain, Lewis write, must “be united as a team with a strong belief and passion in where we are heading.”

It’s probably one of the worst memos ever written by a publisher, for countless reasons – starting with the fact that Lewis notably does not have a plan and nobody knows where he’s heading.

The man has been a cipher, hiding from the newsroom, and the memo is characteristically full of buzzwords that signify nothing.

He writes of having made the Post “more appealing to, and trusted by, today’s audiences” – a ridiculous and unsubstantiated boast.

He writes of “launching new, engaging product improvements such as From the Source.” “From the Source” is a tiny pilot project that allows certain sources in news stories to add comments as annotations. It’s hardly a showpiece.

And he writes of “embracing AI rapidly across all of our workflows,” whatever the heck that means, and it can’t be good.

So in the absence of anything remotely like a recognizable journalistic strategy, what Lewis is basically asking for is a pledge of loyalty to him personally -- a promise not to complain, no matter what he does next.

And that’s particularly inappropriate given the fact that he is, on a personal level, a morally bankrupt figure -- having been hip-deep in the 2011 cover-up of Rupert Murdoch’s massive phone-hacking scandal. (Lewis, a Brit, cut his teeth working for the right-wing publishing magnate.)

After being hired as Post publisher in 2023 -- to almost everyone’s astonishment – Lewis tried to cover up his role in the cover-up, pressuring former top editor Sally Buzbee not to run a story about his involvement then forcing her out after she defied him. Then he tried to bribe NPR reporter David Folkenflik into dropping his story about the allegation.

To say that Lewis has failed to win over the newsroom is an understatement. Back in March, two of the newspaper’s most respected alumni felt obliged to intervene on behalf of the staff, begging Post owner Jeff Bezos to fire Lewis. There was no response.

Another enormous problem with the memo is that trying to purge a newsroom of complainers is a great way to get rid of your best reporters and editors. Many – though not all – great journalists are notoriously cynical. They question everything. And they don’t check their brains at the door when it comes to their own institution.

Getting rid of people who question newsroom policy is a great way to both lose talented journalists and, in the absence of internal pushback, make really bad decisions.

And perhaps worst of all, those who stay will now be forever tarnished as enablers and sycophants.

Oh, wait, one more thing: The memo is smarmy as hell, full of insincerity like “If you choose to move away from The Post, thank you for all your contributions, and I truly wish you the best of luck.” It’s an insult to anyone receiving it.

All in all, it’s a recipe for disaster. And it comes after several other disasters that have led to numerous resignations and mass subscriber loss.

In October, hundreds of thousands of readers canceled their subscriptions after news broke that Bezos had ordered the editorial board not to endorse Kamala Harris for president, as they intended to do.

Then in February, Bezos announced a directive that the Post’s editorial pages would henceforth promote "personal liberties and free markets" and would refuse to publish pieces opposing those principles. Several top editorial-page editors and columnists fled soon after.

And over the last year, other publications – notably including the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and CNN – have picked off much of the newsroom’s marquee talent.

The New Yorker in May reasonably asked the question: “Is Jeff Bezos Selling Out the Washington Post?”

What’s left in the Washington Post is not nothing. Some reporters continue to do excellent work, despite the circumstances.

But I fear this memo will drive even more of the best people away, while demoralizing those who remain even further.

Simply put, the Washington Post, as I’ve written before, has no future as an independent news organization as long as Jeff Bezos owns it – and as long as Lewis remains publisher.

This new memo suggests that Lewis is confident in his position, and that’s maybe the worst part of it all.