WaPo boss sounds alarm over dwindling audience in heated staff meeting: 'People are not reading your stuff'

Washington Post publisher and CEO William Lewis had a blunt message for his staff during a tense meeting following the sudden ouster of executive editor Sally Buzbee, according to the paper's own reporting. 

"We are going to turn this thing around, but let’s not sugarcoat it. It needs turning around," Lewis told the paper. "We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore."

Lewis informed his staff Sunday night that Buzbee, who joined the Post in 2021, was parting ways with the paper "effective immediately." He announced her temporary replacement would be former Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Matt Murray, who is expected to hold the position through the 2024 election cycle, and that the paper was being restructured into "three newsrooms," in hopes of turning things around for the beleaguered "Democracy Dies in Darkness" publication.