Will Lewis, the chief executive and publisher of The Washington Post, has stepped down from his position, just days after the newspaper slashed a third of its workforce in a sweeping round of layoffs.
In a brief statement, Lewis said he made the decision “in order to ensure the sustainable future of The Post.” His email thanked only Jeff Bezos, the paper’s owner, and notably did not acknowledge the newspaper’s journalists.
Jeff D’Onofrio, the company’s chief financial officer, has been named acting chief executive.
The departure came after The Post, which has faced years of financial losses, cut more than 300 journalists from its staff on Wednesday. The layoffs decimated the paper’s local, international, and sports coverage, drawing sharp criticism from media observers.
Marty Baron, the celebrated former editor of The Post, called it one of the “darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.”
Lewis’s exit caught many at The Post off guard. He was seen in meetings on Wednesday and gave no indication he planned to leave. The following day, he was photographed at a Super Bowl event in San Francisco — a juxtaposition with the shuttering of The Post’s sports department that sparked widespread outcry from current and former staff members.
In a statement, Amazon (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos, who bought the paper in 2013, said The Post has “an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity,” adding that readers “give us a road map to success.” He did not mention the cost-cutting measures.