During his tenure as editor-in-chief at The Washington Post, Martin Baron ran into a persistent problem.
Jeff Bezos had bought The Post for $250 million in 2013, less than a year after Mr. Baron took over. Mr. Bezos, who took ownership of the media after founding Amazon and recreating online shopping, wanted his top editor to transform the paper from a regional news organization into a truly global one.
But Mr. Bezos, whose reps oversaw the budget, didn’t believe The Post needed many new editors to accomplish that task. Reporters were classified as “direct” employees and editors as “indirect” – and his preference was to keep the “indirect” numbers low.
So Mr. Baron came up with a solution, according to his forthcoming memoir.
“To avoid raising the alarm later, my deputies and I would remove the word ‘editor’ from proposed new positions whenever possible,” writes Mr. Baron. “‘Analyst’ or ‘strategist’ were among the limited set of workarounds.”
These days, Mr. Bezos knows more about the news world. And in recent months he has become more involved in The Post’s operations, stepping in as staff morale collapsed and the company struggled.
Mr Bezos has said he wants The Post to become profitable, but is unlikely to meet that target this year.
The Post is on track to lose about $100 million by 2023, according to two people with knowledge of the company’s finances; two other people briefed on the situation said the company expected to miss its ad revenue forecasts this year. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal financial matters. The Post has struggled to increase paying customers since the 2020 election, when digital subscriptions peaked at three million. There are now about 2.5 million.
A spokesperson for Mr. Bezos declined to make him available for an interview. Patty Stonesifer, interim director of The Post, said Mr. Bezos was happy with “every dollar invested” in the company. A person familiar with Mr Bezos’ plans said The Post planned for 2023 to be a “year for investment”.
“I’m very excited about what we can do here at The Washington Post in the next decade,” Ms. Stonesifer said in a statement. “Jeff’s second decade of ownership of The Post should be even more exciting.”
Mr. Bezos’ purchase of The Washington Post ended decades of ownership by the Graham family — who had guided the newspaper through its legendary coverage of Watergate and the Pentagon Papers — and marked a new era of expansion among one of the world’s most famous entrepreneurs. In a meeting with staff shortly after his purchase, Mr. Bezos Post employees to experiment digitally and take advantage of the “gifts of the Internet” such as the global reach that had made Amazon a stunning success. He secured sufficient financial support to expand the newsroom.
Mr. Bezos weighed in on product decisions and hired former Politico CEO Fred Ryan to serve as publisher to replace Katharine Weymouth, a scion of the Graham family. He kept Mr Baron in place as editor-in-chief of The Post until his retirement in 2021, often referring to him as the best journalism tutor an owner could wish for. He helped choose Sally Buzbee as Mr. Baron’s successor and invited her to his home in Washington’s upscale Kalorama neighborhood.
But after an initial wave of interest that lasted several years, and following his decision to step down as CEO of Amazon, Mr. Bezos withdrew somewhat from The Post, according to two people familiar with his interactions with the editors.
That changed in January, after Ms. Buzbee spoke to Mr. Bezos and delivered an urgent message: Morale was low at The Post. Much of it, she said, was due to missteps by the paper’s chief business executive Mr Ryan, according to two people familiar with her comments.
Mrs. Buzbee’s relationship with Mr. Ryan was fraught. He had accused Cameron Barr, her top deputy, of leaking information about The Post’s operations to the press, according to three people familiar with his remarks, and had asked for his impeachment. Through a spokesperson, Mr. Ryan that he is Mr. Barr accused of leaking information and trying to get rid of him. The Post declined to comment on the situation. Two people familiar with the matter said there was no evidence to support the leaked claims.
Many at The Post had grown frustrated with what they perceived as a blunted corporate culture that Mr. Ryan presided over, and had relayed these concerns to Ms. Buzbee.
The Post also bled talent. In the past year, several prominent reporters, including Pulitzer Prize winners Eli Saslow, Robert Samuels and Stephanie McCrummen, left along with top editors including Mr. Barr; Steven Ginsberg, a longtime editor; David Malitz, editor-in-chief culture; and Sharif Durhams, deputy editor.
There was a similar exodus among top Post executives, including Shailesh Prakash, chief information officer; Joy Robins, main income; Kat Downs Mulder, Chief Product Officer; and Kristine Coratti Kelly, head of communications. (Mrs. Robins, Mr. Saslow, Mr. Malitz, and Mr. Ginsberg have joined The New York Times Company.)
In January, Mr. Bezos made a rare appearance on the editorial board. He attended a morning news meeting and later in the day met with a handful of Post journalists. At some of his meetings, several Post employees expressed concern about Mr. Ryan’s indiscretions and the paper’s course.
In June, Mr. Ryan announced his resignation and told employees he planned to start the Center on Public Civility, a new project of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, where he serves as chairman of the board. Mr. Bezos agreed to fund the center.
In an interview with The Times last month, Mr. Ryan that he had “a lot of conversations” with Mr. Bezos on the new organization.
Mr. Bezos appointed Ms. Stonesifer, a friend who has served on Amazon’s board of directors for more than two decades, to run The Post during Mr. Ryan’s absence and to serve as interim director while the search for a permanent one was underway.
Ms Stonesifer – who takes no salary for the job – has already begun to make her mark on The Post. She meets with employees regularly and asks for feedback on what she calls “flowers,” things people are proud of and want to grow, and “weeds,” issues people want resolved.
On July 11, she and Mr. Ryan hired Alex MacCallum, a veteran of The Times and CNN, as The Post’s Chief Revenue Officer, and appointed Vineet Khosla as the newspaper’s Chief Technology Officer. Ms. Stonesifer has also repeatedly told employees that Mr. Bezos is fully committed to the company and sees the newspaper as a legacy to his family.
Mr. Bezos has personally collaborated on an experimental project being developed for The Post’s opinion section, which is led by editorial page editor David Shipley, a former Bloomberg editor he helped recruit. The initiative — which has not yet been officially named — explores a forum for readers in cities across the United States to express their own opinions and comments.
Mr. Bezos has told confidants that the new venture, which is being developed with the help of former New York magazine editor Adam Moss, is an opportunity to reach readers who may have missed the news, according to four people familiar with its development. Mr. Bezos meets regularly with Mr. Shipley to discuss the project.
Other changes on the agenda at De Post include a restart of the 54-year-old Style section in September. According to three people with knowledge of the plan, the overhaul will include an online redesign.
Mr. Ryan’s departure is viewed by employees as a victory for Ms. Buzbee, whose relationship with the editors of The Post has been strained at times since she moved from The Associated Press two years ago. The Post has continued to deliver quality journalism, winning two Pulitzer Prizes for its reporting in May, while a book written by two Post reporters received the overall non-fiction award.
Ms. Buzbee now meets regularly with Ms. Stonesifer and seems to be energized by that collaboration, according to editors, who are also strengthened by Ms. Stonesifer’s close ties to Mr. Bezos.
“There’s a sense of hope that we haven’t had in a long time,” said Sally Quinn, a longtime Post journalist and the widow of Ben Bradlee, a former top editor of The Post.
