The Post’s sudden top-management, announced by Lewis alongside ambitious plans for a new editorial division, marks the British-born journalist’s biggest change yet since he became CEO in January.
Ms. Buzbee, a former executive editor of The Associated Press and the first woman to lead the nearly 150-year-old paper, could not be reached for comment.
The announcement came as a surprise to many at The Post during what is traditionally a flagship news event for the paper during the final months of the presidential election campaign. He has been busy covering President Donald Trump’s unprecedented conviction in his hush money criminal trial in New York, as well as the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
Buzbee took the stage at a company-wide meeting just under two weeks ago, where Lewis told staff about plans to build a new level of subscription services to boost revenue.
She was hired in May 2021 by then-Washington Post publisher and CEO Fred Ryan, who had resigned nearly a year earlier after an unusual series of cuts, public clashes with the editorial union and a steep decline in revenue and subscribers.
When Lewis was named editor in chief late last year, he told The Washington Post he was a “big fan” of Buzbee, whom he met while on the board of directors of The Associated Press, and was “100 percent” committed to him continuing in the role.
Lewis also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement released by the company, he said, “Sally is an incredible leader and incredibly talented media executive who will be deeply missed and we wish her the best in her future endeavors.”
Buzbee’s departure comes at an already turbulent time for The Washington Post, which Lewis recently acknowledged lost $77 million in the past year and offered hundreds of staffers buyouts at the end of 2023 to rein in costs.
In an email to staff Sunday night, Lewis also announced plans to launch “new divisions of the newsroom” later this year that will focus on “service and social media journalism” and target readers “who want to consume and pay for news in different ways than traditional services.”
“Our goal is to provide engaging, inspiring and accurate news to the millions of Americans who feel traditional news isn’t for them, but still want to be informed, wherever they are, in the style they want,” he added.
Lewis said Murray will head the new division after the election, while Winnett will oversee “core news areas” including politics, investigative, business, technology, sports and features. David Shipley will remain in his role as head of the Post’s opinion department, which has traditionally run separately from news.
Murray was the top editor at The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones when Lewis was publisher and CEO of The Wall Street Journal.
In recent months, Lewis has also announced the hiring of former Dow Jones colleagues as CEO of The Washington Post, including Carl Wells as chief growth officer and Suzi Watford as chief strategy officer.
Winnett, who is less well known in U.S. media circles than Murray, also has a connection with Lewis, who was editor of London’s Daily Telegraph when he hired Winnett as a senior reporter there in 2007. The two had previously worked together at The Sunday Times of London.
As a reporter, Winnett broke big stories about expense misuse by members of Congress and won praise for revelations that led to resignations and criminal investigations.
Meanwhile, Murray himself experienced a sudden editorial restructuring just a year and a half ago.
A 29-year veteran of The Wall Street Journal, he was named editor-in-chief in 2018. During his tenure, the paper won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting and produced several groundbreaking investigative series. Digital subscribership also grew during his tenure.
But in late 2022, he was replaced by Emma Tucker, a British reporter for The Sunday Times of London who has close ties to the inner circle of The Wall Street Journal’s controlling shareholder, Rupert Murdoch.
Buzbee’s tenure coincided with a difficult period for many news organizations, with readership and revenue declining. He oversaw The Post’s editorial department during a period of record hiring, but also high-profile departures, layoffs and buyouts. Buzbee killed The Post’s weekly magazine, and the paper stopped publishing its Outlook section, a column focused on commentary and analysis.
Still, Buzbee is credited with establishing an editorial department focused on climate and human services coverage, and he also oversaw the editorial department as it won multiple Pulitzer Prizes, including a public service award, for its coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and its aftermath. Last month, National staffers won a Pulitzer Prize for a project on the politics and impact of AR-15 rifles.
