XPost: alt.journalism.criticism, alt.journalism.newspapers, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics, talk.politics.misc   
   From: nospam@ix.netcom.com   
      
   Even before 250,000 digital readers unsubscribed from the Washington   
   Post in protest, the paper was on track to lose at least as much money   
   as it lost last year: $77 million. A deputy managing editor shared the   
   figure in a recent meeting with reporters and editors, per multiple   
   sources. The editor did not say what the added impact of the non-   
   endorsement exodus would be, according to those present. “Mind-blowing,”   
   as one staffer put it. “The level of anger is through the roof, and fear   
   is also through the roof. There’s huge concern that Bezos is going to   
   pull the plug.”   
      
   That doesn’t seem likely, at least in the near term. Instead, owner Jeff   
   Bezos — and his already controversial publisher pick, Will Lewis — seems   
   determined to fix the paper, whether the current staff likes it or not.   
   Meanwhile, there has yet to be an official acknowledgment of the 250,000   
   canceled subscriptions that came in response to Bezos spiking a planned   
   Kamala Harris endorsement shortly before the election, a figure first   
   reported by NPR and later confirmed by the Post’s own media reporter.   
   “The top stories that do well convert 200 readers to subscribers,” a   
   staffer noted. “You’re doing your best work, hoping you convert 200   
   subscribers. And we lost 250,000 through naïveté and poor decision-   
   making.” (A Post spokesperson declined to comment on subscription   
   numbers and personnel matters, including hiring.)   
      
   Lewis, a longtime lieutenant of Rupert Murdoch’s, came in hot. He   
   seemingly sidelined Sally Buzbee, the executive editor he inherited, by   
   trying to put her in charge of a newly invented “third newsroom”   
   (focused on service journalism and social media, among other   
   innovations) while planning on bringing in a friend from the U.K.,   
   Robert Winnett, to take her old job overseeing the legacy newsroom. But   
   Buzbee, sensing a demotion, quit, and questions about the Winnett Fleet   
   Street way of doing things caused him to step back, leaving the newsroom   
   under the temporary control of another previous Lewis colleague, the   
   former Wall Street Journal editor Matt Murray, through the end of the   
   election.   
      
   Now Murray is angling for a version of the classic top newsroom job,   
   overseeing both newsrooms, new and old. And he has moved his family to   
   D.C. But there’s no guarantee he’ll get it. The search for the job is   
   underway and expected to conclude by the end of the year. Patty   
   Stonesifer, a longtime Bezos confidante who served as interim Post CEO   
   before Lewis came aboard, is involved in the process, I’m told, along   
   with Lewis and Bezos. Candidates delivered memos last week. The other   
   internal candidate is managing editor Matea Gold. (The Post approached   
   some alumni — former managing editor Steven Ginsberg, who is currently   
   running The Athletic, and Kevin Merida, a former Post managing editor   
   who had spent 22 years at the paper before a three-year stint running   
   the Los Angeles Times — early on in the search process, but neither were   
   interested.)   
      
   Staff are mixed on Murray. He came in and instantly seemed more engaged   
   in the journalism than Buzbee — talkative in news meetings, shooting   
   notes about headlines — which was a big and welcome change. But several   
   staffers told me he was, frustratingly to them, a company man during the   
   endorsement mess, telling staff in a meeting that he didn’t know how   
   many subscribers were lost and to buck up for the changes ahead.   
   “Completely the wrong message,” one staffer said. “The message should be   
   ‘We’re not doing anything different journalistically, and I’m going to   
   be out there defending you guys.’” The journalists were looking for   
   someone to rally around — as they have been since Marty Baron left — and   
   Murray instead, in their view, stuck close to the boss.   
      
   Gold, on the other hand, isn’t angling to also oversee the third   
   newsroom — the first is apparently enough for her — an outcome that   
   would make many journalists happy. She is beloved by reporters. But   
   several staffers I spoke to think it’s unlikely. “If they were going to   
   give it to her, why wouldn’t they have done it when they brought in   
   Matt?” asked one. Gold is a champion of what the Post has been — she has   
   been there for over a decade — and Lewis et al. seem to think the paper   
   has to be something else these days. Not that they have presented a very   
   clear plan for what that is.   
      
   There are also external candidates competing for the top job, and I’m   
   told Timesman Cliff Levy, a former masthead member who is currently the   
   deputy publisher of The Athletic and Wirecutter, is one of them.   
      
   Two days after the election, Lewis congratulated staff on their coverage   
   and, in the same breath, told them that they had to return to the office   
   five days a week starting next year. The policy — the same order that   
   employees at Amazon, also owned by Bezos, got in September — will kick   
   in for all employees on June 2, and managers must be back full time by   
   February 3. Internally, the Washington Post Guild is, unsurprisingly,   
   pushing back against the policy, jumping into organizing mode and   
   flooding public Slack channels with demands for a town hall with Lewis.   
   But many senior staffers I spoke to are less upset about the actual RTO   
   policy and more about the timing of it, amid unresolved questions about   
   the paper’s leadership and how it will cover the incoming Trump   
   administration — a herculean task for any newsroom. The new office   
   policy “felt punitive,” one staffer said, “like a response to the outcry   
   to them driving us in the ditch with that lack of endorsement. And if   
   that wasn’t the intention, then they certainly missed the boat on the   
   optics of that, too.”   
      
   “These aren’t changes that will help us compete in the 21st century,”   
   one staffer said, recalling how Lewis, who himself has a questionable   
   business record, told the newsroom that “people are not reading your   
   stuff” and that its “audience has halved in recent years” back in June.   
   “He has not asked for a single change that in any way seems designed to   
   improve our business plan” and instead “has contempt and derision for   
   the newsroom.”   
      
   Currently, Post staff are expected to come in three days a week, though   
   there’s been little effort to enforce that. Some people who were given   
   exemptions from the last return-to-office mandate are now being told   
   their exemptions are voided. It’s unclear how strictly the new policy   
   will be enforced, though one part of a FAQ document recently posted to   
   the Post’s internal HR portal might be some indication. Question: “What   
   would you say to a person who does not wish to return to a five-day-a-   
   week policy?” Answer: “If an employee decides they do not wish to return   
      
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