With its top editor abruptly gone, The Washington Post grapples with a hastily announced restructure

Washington Post in turmoil after executive editor departure, restructuring plan to stop reader exodus, and new leadership changes.

The struggling Washington Post found itself in turmoil on June 3 following the abrupt departure of the newspaper's executive editor and a hastily announced restructuring plan to stop an exodus of readers over the past few years.

Post publisher Will Lewis and Matt Murray, a former Wall Street Journal editor named to replace Sally Buzbee temporarily, met with reporters and editors at the Post on June 3 to explain changes that had been outlined in a June 2 night email.

The plan includes splitting the newsroom into three separate divisions with managers who report to Mr. Lewis — one that encompasses the Post's core news reporting, one with opinion pieces and the third devoted to attracting new consumers through innovative uses of social media, video, artificial intelligence and sales.

Although Mr. Murray is temporarily replacing Ms. Buzbee through the November presidential election, the eventual plan places no one in the role of an executive editor who oversees the entire newsroom. Ms. Buzbee was said to disagree with the plan and chose to leave rather than be put in charge of one of the divisions, the Post reported.

Mr. Lewis was not made available for an interview on June 3, and Ms. Buzbee did not immediately return a message.

“It definitely kind of blindsided people,” said Paul Farhi, a recently retired media reporter at the Post. “But it shows you that Will Lewis is working out of a sense of crisis and urgency. He's only been there five months and he's making gigantic changes to the newsroom.”

Like most news organizations, the Post has lost readers — a decline more acute because the Washington-based outlet boomed with the interest in politics during the Trump administration. The Post's website had 101 million unique visitors a month in 2020, and had dropped to 50 million at the end of 2023. The Post lost a reported $77 million last year.