• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, February 9, 2026

Observers who thought the departures at The Washington Post topped out last week were wrong. There was one more.

On Saturday, it was announced that Will Lewis, the controversial CEO and publisher, was out.

There was no comment from owner Jeff Bezos on the cause.

But the Financial Times reports that the last straw was when Lewis turned up at Super Bowl parties in San Francisco. 

The optics, as they say, were terrible. A photo of Lewis on the red carpet at the NFL Honors ceremony quickly drew 750,000 views on X, The Daily Beast writes. 

“Senior management at the Post were livid when they discovered that Lewis was attending festivities around the Super Bowl in San Francisco around the time of the news of the jobs cuts,” a source told Financial Times. 

Jeff D’Onofrio, CFO of the Post, will replace Lewis as interim CEO and publisher. 

Of course, Lewis was not a popular figure.

Last summer, Lewis urged newsroom staffers to consider taking buyouts if they could not support the Post’s (seemingly more pro-Trump) agenda. But the turmoil started before that, during the 2024 election. 

Post insiders claimed that tens of thousands of subscribers dropped out after the Post declined to endorse a presidential candidate, and that it has lost 300,000 overall. 

Look for more chaos at this once-great institution. Entire news desks have been gutted, and there are no apologies for it. 

“During my tenure, difficult decisions have been taken in order to ensure the sustainable future of The Post so it can for many years ahead publish high-quality nonpartisan news to millions of customers each day,” Lewis wrote last week, thanking Bezos but not any journalists. It apparently didn’t convince many staff members.