How an Embittered Brit Decimated the Washington Post

"When Will Lewis arrived at the Washington Post in January 2024, he was received as a potential redeemer. The Post had lost $77 million the previous year under Lewis's predecessor as publisher and CEO, Fred Ryan, an affable man about town who was once Ronald Reagan's post-presidential chief of staff. "The state of the paper when Fred left was really bad," says a senior staffer on the business side. "It was basically like two generational news cycles of Trump and COVID made the execs feel like they had a strategy and then the music stopped and subscribers fell away." From its high of 3 million subscribers at the end of the first Trump administration, the Post was now down to 2.5 million, and half of its online audience had withered away from a peak in 2020. Owner Jeff Bezos, who bought the Post in 2013, was looking for a leader to jolt the paper to life."

""He came in, and we were all onboard - It's exciting; we need a refreshing change," recalls a former senior newsroom staffer. Lewis had a certain swagger and a British accent. In those early months, he told Puck that it was time for the paper to reassert itself among the slew of competitors - Politico, Axios, Punchbowl News - that had crowded the Washington, D.C., media marketplace. "We've let the tanks come onto our lawn," Lewis said. "We've let people invade our space, and it's time to push back." A former editor describes his arrival as "a relief after years of Fred's French-cuffed leadership.""

""Will's entry was actually really impressive," a former Post executive tells me. "The Post gave away the paper for free to anyone with a .gov email address. A lot of things were incredibly frustrating in that era. Will came in and saw that right away." Former executive editor Marty Baron had expanded the newsroom during the Trump bump, and his successor, Sally Buzbee, had hired around another 150 journalists, but it wasn't clear how that newsroom"

When Will Lewis arrived at the Washington Post in January 2024, the paper faced steep financial and audience decline, having lost $77 million the prior year under Fred Ryan. Subscriptions fell from roughly 3 million to 2.5 million, and online reach had halved since a 2020 peak. Owner Jeff Bezos sought new leadership to reverse those trends. Lewis presented a confident, assertive approach and urged the paper to reclaim market share from rivals like Politico, Axios, and Punchbowl. The newsroom had expanded during the Trump bump, but questions remained about strategy and long-term sustainability.

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