Sally Buzbee steps down as Washington Post executive editor, to be replaced by Telegraph veteran | Washington Post

Washington Post executive editor Sally Busby has stepped down after three years at the helm of one of the most respected news brands in the US and will eventually be replaced by a veteran of the British Daily Telegraph.

She will initially be replaced by Matt Murray, former editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal, until this fall’s presidential election. Robert Winnett, currently deputy editor of the Telegraph Media Group, will take over as editor after the election.

No reason was given for Buzbee’s departure. She was not quoted in the news release announcing her departure and did not immediately return a message seeking comment from The Associated Press.

Busby, a former managing editor at the Associated Press, becomes the first female executive editor of the Washington Post in May 2021. She replaced Martin Baron after the Post exploded in popularity during the Trump administration.

However, it’s been a miserable couple of years financially for the news industry, including the Post. There are bloody subscribersto the point where new publisher Will Lewis told employees last month that the paper lost $77 million last year.

“To put it bluntly, we’re in a hole and have been for a while,” Lewis said, according to the Post.

Lewis was appointed late last year to replace Fred Ryan as Post publisher. He worked at both the Wall Street Journal and the Telegraph in the UK, both places he turned to to find new executives.

He talked about creating a tiered subscription plan for the Post similar to Politico’s. In an email to employees late Sunday, Lewis said a new department will launch later this year that will focus on more video storytelling, embrace artificial intelligence and flexible payment methods.

Lewis said he stressed the need to “move away from the traditional one-size-fits-all approach in the news media industry and focus on creating news for a wider range of readers and customers”.

The Post won three Pulitzer Prizes last month, including one for national reporting for a series on the impact of the AR-15 rifle.