Weeks before the embattled executive editor of The Washington Post abruptly resigned on Sunday,
her relationship with the company’s chief executive became increasingly tense.
In mid-May, the two clashed over whether to publish an article about a British hacking scandal with some ties to The Post’s chief executive, Will #Lewis,
according to two people with knowledge of their interactions.
Sally #Buzbee, the editor, informed Mr. Lewis that the newsroom planned to cover a judge’s scheduled ruling in a long-running British legal case brought by Prince Harry and others against some of Rupert #Murdoch’s tabloids, the people said.
As part of the ruling, the judge was expected to say whether the plaintiffs could add Mr. Lewis’s name to a list of executives who they argued were involved in a plan to conceal evidence of hacking at the newspapers.
Mr. Lewis told Ms. Buzbee the case involving him did not merit coverage, the people said.
When Ms. Buzbee said The Post would publish an article anyway, he said her decision represented a lapse in judgment and abruptly ended the conversation.
The interaction rattled Ms. Buzbee, who then consulted with confidants outside The Post about how she should handle the situation.
When the judge ruled several days later, on May 21, that Mr. Lewis could be added to the case, The Post published an article about the decision.
Mr. Lewis did not prevent the article from publishing.
But the incident continued to weigh on Ms. Buzbee just as she was considering her future at the paper, according to the two people with knowledge of her decision-making process.
Her eventual decision to resign has shaken one of the country’s top news organizations.
The interaction over the court ruling was not the primary reason for her resignation.
Ms. Buzbee had already been mulling her future at The Post because of a plan by Mr. Lewis to reorganize the newsroom that he laid out to her in April, the people said.
Mr. Lewis had offered Ms. Buzbee a job running a new division focused on social media and service journalism, according to the people.
She considered that a demotion, since her job as executive editor included overseeing all parts of the news report.
Mr. Lewis was appointed by Jeff #Bezos, The Post’s owner and the founder of Amazon, late last year to remake the publication as it reeled from a steep audience decline and annual losses in the tens of millions of dollars.
For the past few months, Mr. Lewis, who was previously the chief executive of News Corp’s Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, has been formulating a strategy to overhaul the business.
He decided to split the editorial ranks into three divisions:
a core newsroom that covers politics, business and other topics;
an opinion section; and
a new division that would focus on social media, like video storytelling, as well as service journalism, including wellness and lifestyle coverage.
(The Post is currently divided into two parts, news and opinion.)
In offering Ms. Buzbee a role running the social media and service journalism division, according to people familiar with her thinking, Mr. Lewis told her she could weigh in on the recruitment of the editor to oversee the core news operation.
He later informed her that he had selected Robert Winnett, an editor at The Daily Telegraph who had previously worked with Mr. Lewis, the people said.
sherrilynifill
1d
As @davidfolkenflik has pointed out the Washington Post, the WSJ, Bloomberg News, CNN are all run by British CEOs now. We should be asking tough and loud questions about why in a country brimming with talented journalistic & business leaders our major news outlets feel compelled to hire leaders from outside the country.