Sally Buzbee is leaving her position at The Washington Post as Executive Editor in a surprise move, with just months to go before the November presidential election.
"Sally is an incredible leader and a supremely talented media executive who will be sorely missed. I wish her all the best going forward," William Lewis, CEO and Publisher of The Washington Post, said.
Buzbee will be replaced by Matt Murray, the former Editor-in-Chief of The Wall Street Journal. Murray will serve until the presidential election this year, after which deputy editor of The Telegraph Media Group, Robert Winnett, will take over, according to a press release from Sunday.
"I’m deeply honored to join such a storied news institution with its long, rich history of memorable and impactful journalism and want to thank Sally for her great leadership," Murray said. "I am excited by Will and Jeff’s vision for The Post’s next era of growth and reinvention and can’t wait to get started."
Lewis said that The Post was changing to accommodate the audience.
"By creating three, strong, journalism functions – Core, Service/Social and Opinions – we are taking a definitive step away from the 'one size fits all' approach and moving towards meeting our audiences where they are," Lewis said.
Buzbee previously served as executive editor of the Associated Press before joining the Post in 2021. During her tenure, audience declined as the newspaper with the slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" struggled with financial hardships.
Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post in 2013. Then-Washington Post chairman and CEO Donald Graham called Bezos a "uniquely good new owner" and said the decision was made after years of newspaper industry challenges.
Over a decade later, the paper faced battles with staying profitable. Many staffers characterized 2023 as a particularly trying year to work at The Post.
"This has been a chaotic and turbulent period internally," a Washington Post insider told Fox News Digital in December.
Early that month, unionized workers at the paper staged a 24-hour walkout over stalled contract negotiations, fueling questions about whether Bezos should intervene.
A deal came after Post leadership announced that enough employees accepted the paper’s voluntary separation package to reach its workforce reduction goal ahead of 2024.
The Washington Post lost more than $70 million in 2023, per The New York Times.
Fox News' Brian Flood, David Rutz and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
