The Washington Post said Saturday, February 7, its CEO and publisher Will Lewis was leaving effective immediately, just days after the storied newspaper owned by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos made drastic job cuts that angered readers.

In an email to staff shared on social media by one of the newspaper’s reporters, Lewis said it was “the right time for me to step aside.” He has been replaced by Jeff D’Onofrio, who had joined the Post as chief financial officer last year. A statement from the Post said only that D’Onofrio was succeeding Lewis “effective immediately.”

Hundreds of Post journalists – including most of its overseas, local and sports staff – were let go in the sweeping cuts announced on Tuesday.

The Post did not disclose the number of jobs being eliminated, but the New York Times reported approximately 300 of its 800 journalists were laid off.

The paper’s entire Middle East roster was let go as was its Kyiv-based Ukraine correspondent as the war with Russia grinds on.

Sports, graphics and local news departments were sharply scaled back and the paper’s daily podcast, Post Reports, was suspended, local media reported. Hundreds turned out Thursday at a protest in front of the paper’s headquarters in downtown Washington.

‘Darkest days’

Bezos, one of the world’s richest people, was quoted in the Post‘s statement saying that the paper has “an extraordinary opportunity. Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus.”

He and Lewis have come under scrutiny for intervening directly in the paper’s editorial processes.

Bezos reined in the newspaper’s liberal-leaning editorial page and blocked an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris days before the 2024 election – breaking the so-called firewall of editorial independence. He was widely seen as bowing to Trump.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that 250,000 digital subscribers left the Post after it refrained from endorsing Harris, and the paper lost around $100 million in 2024 as advertising and subscription revenues fell.

Marty Baron, the Post‘s executive editor until 2021, said that the job cuts ranked “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.”