Posted on 06/04/2024 11:39:50 AM PDT by Twotone
Will Lewis, the Washington Post's publisher and CEO, told whiplashed staff on Monday the paper needs to do something radical to make the company profitable because readership has drastically declined.
The meeting was held after executive editor Sally Buzbee abruptly left the Washington Post after coming from the Associated Press in 2021.
“We need world-class journalism every single day, and the people that are coming in to help us do that will be a real benefit to the organization,” he said. He said he “really enjoyed working with Sally” and “wish[ed] it could have gone on for longer, but it couldn’t," according to Vanity Fair, based on people who were in the meeting.
The meeting became tense at times because some staffers felt Buzbee's departure was not handled correctly and they objected to a woman being replaced with another white man. The issue of diversity within the paper's leadership was brought up several times. Lewis said the lack of diversity is an issue but that the main problem is how the nation's capital newspaper is hemorrhaging money.
“We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore,” Lewis said. “So I’ve had to take decisive, urgent action to set us on a different path, sourcing talent that I have worked with that are the best of the best.”
The Washington Post sent out a quick note on Sunday about Buzbee's departure in order to try to prevent getting scooped by the New York Times, one of the reasons employees felt Buzbee was disrespected. Politico noted the Times did beat the Post to the announcement anyway.
Despite the urgent news about the company's dire finances and dwindling audience, an employee who spoke to Vanity Fair was still hung up on the lack of diversity.
“I don’t think she deserved to go out this way,” the staffer said, noting that in conversations with their colleagues, people “don’t feel good about the fact that the first female executive editor of TheWashington Post got a one paragraph goodbye note at 8:30 p.m. on a Sunday, and that she’s being replaced by more white men we don’t know.”
The New York Post reports Lewis impressed upon people they needed to "get with the program."
Lewis cannot “expect to bring in new readers” when he’s “abolished all diversity from the leadership," a source similarly told the NY Post.
The propaganda template needs revision.
The champions of public schools reap the whirlwind.
Maybe they could have the laws changed so that fish and chips or other fast foods were required by law to be wrapped in newspaper (preferably with the WAPo).
‘Lewis cannot “expect to bring in new readers” when he’s “abolished all diversity from the leadership,” a source similarly told the NY Post.’
And why is that? Is that assertion true? It seems to me that no one on the left is capable of making an argument anymore.
I suppose some people might say “I hear the WaPo has increased the diversity in their leadership. I think I’ll pick up a copy.”
It’s more likely that the WaPo’s leadership is currently so liberal, and so diverse, that the paper is churning out propaganda instead of honest news. Some of their readers can tell the difference.
The WaPo could pursue diversity in a way that increases readership. They need affirmative action to bring in conservatives at all levels of the paper, especially the leadership.
Despite the urgent news about the company’s dire finances and dwindling audience, an employee who spoke to Vanity Fair was still hung up on the lack of diversity.
They deserve some credit for breaking the Watergate story, but that was 50 years ago, and what have they done since?
They deserve some credit for breaking the Watergate story
A minor story that got blown out of proportion. If the Parties were reversed it never would have been a story.
Why does nobody read their stories? Number 1 they’re extremely politically biased. Number 2 they’re all about getting Trump and don’t even bother to acknowledge it. Number 3 they’re commie elitists. No American wants that.
The place is staffed by narcissists who live on the low end of the IQ scale. They effectively mirror the deep state rats they cover for, and readers have zero interest in reading about the travails of irritating psychopaths.
Lewis missed an opportunity to tell staff
Diversity is an unaffordable luxury when the company is losing money.
Watch heads explode.
DIVERSITY===BANKRUPTCY
These people are so blinded by their ideology. We must be diverse - never mind that the product we produce is garbage and no one wants to read it, which is the real reason for their cratering circulation numbers and huge financial losses (not that Jeff Bezos cares).
They just don't get it. The new editor told them flat out: no one is reading your product.
Pravda on the Potomac...
How is it done?
If they expect their writers to generate consumer interest content then they are dead. They all just yell SJW / LGBTQPedo /BLOnlyMATTER …. and no one will willingly pay for that BS.
He is a gadfly.
Which is not a bad thing to be.
If nothing else it makes your articles interesting.
They call it "news" and "The View" but it's a clear case of illegal political contributions-in-kind.
He is my imaginary bird.
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