An editor-in-chief who abruptly resigns, her successor who throws in the towel and a boss targeted in the columns of his newspaper: the prestigious American daily Washington Post, owned by billionaire and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, is going through a deep crisis.
4 mins
At the heart of the storm, the new general director of the ” WaPo “, the British William Lewis, to whom the founder of Amazon and owner of the daily since 2013 Jeff Bezos gave him a clear mission when he appointed him last fall: to get this historic daily newspaper back on track.
THE Washington Post continues to rack up prestigious Pulitzer Prizes, half a century after revealing the Watergate scandal, but has suffered a $77 million loss in 2023. This is despite job cuts and the disappearance of its Sunday supplement.
But this former seasoned journalist, crowned with a historic scoop in the late 2000s on the expenses of parliamentarians in the United Kingdom, sees his position increasingly weakened. For weeks, revelations have been multiplying about his role in the early 2010s in the management of a resounding scandal of illegal telephone tapping carried out by the tabloid News of the Worldwhile working for the Murdoch family’s conservative media group.
Friday June 28, William Lewis was again at the center of an investigation by its own journalists. According to Washington Posthe allegedly gave the green light in 2011 to the destruction of thousands of emails, fueling suspicions of destruction of evidence, which he denies.
Contacted by AFP after the publication of this article, the management of the daily newspaper did not respond.
Profits of Trump presidency fall after he leaves office
As the American presidential election approaches, the affair is now poisoning the life of a prestigious house which “ is not doing well economically “, Dan Kennedy, professor of journalism at Northeastern University, told AFP.
Like other media, the Washington Post took advantage of the upheaval of the Trump years in the White House (2017-2021): “ he was seen as providing reliable and uncompromising coverage ” of the Republican president, adds the professor.
But when Donald Trump left the White House, readers’ appetites dried up. “ THE “Post” was hit particularly hard. It’s a newspaper that seems to say “we are the New York Times, but with less to offer,” adds Dan Kennedy.
At the end of 2022, the newspaper had 2.5 million subscribers, compared to 3 million when Joe Biden took office in early 2021, according to the financial daily Wall Street JournalThe capital’s newspaper is far from the growth of the other major American daily, the New York Times (more than 10 million subscribers): the latter benefits from a diversification strategy towards lighter content (games, cooking recipes, sports) without denying its journalistic fundamentals.
” We are losing a lot of money “, ” people don’t read your articles anymore, I can’t sugarcoat things anymore “, William Lewis said at the beginning of June, during a tense meeting with the editorial staff, according to American media.
” Third draft » to rejuvenate the readership
The day before, journalists from Washington Post had just learned of the abrupt resignation of their editor-in-chief Sally Buzbee.
The latter is said to have expressed disagreement with Mr Lewis’ strategy, which envisages a reorganization of the editorial staff into three divisions: the two already existing ones, information and opinions, as well as a third intended to ” service information and social networks “. The contours of this ” third draft » remain unclear, but it seems intended to rejuvenate the readership and develop more lucrative content, a leap into the unknown for a rather austere newspaper.
Within the Murdoch family group, William Lewis was also the boss of the Wall Street Journal (2014-2020), another flagship of the American press.
Payment of informants, use of hacked telephone data
But other articles, in the New York Times and the Washington Posthave pointed out questionable methods on his part or that of Robert Winnett. The latter, one of his former colleagues, had been chosen by William Lewis to succeed Sally Buzbee. Among the questionable methods, the use of paying informants or the use of hacked telephone data.
After these revelations, Robert Winnett threw in the towel on June 21.
For Dan Kennedy, William Lewis has no choice but to leave in turn, because ” he will not have the confidence of the team “. “ The graft did not take “, wrote a veteran of the newspaper, David Maraniss, on his Facebook page. “ If he is not able to inspire the staff (…) THE Post will sail without direction, and its best elements will leave », Adds Dan Kennedy.
For many observers, the outcome of the crisis is in the hands of Jeff Bezos, who bought the Post for $250 million in 2013. For the moment, he has supported his CEO.