Award-winning editor Tina Brown lays into Bezos and ‘junket schmoozer’ ex-publisher Will Lewis over gutting of WaPo newsroom | EUROtoday

Award-winning editor Tina Brown has laid into Washington Post proprietor Jeff Bezos and ex-publisher Will Lewis, whom she referred to as a “junket schmoozer,” over the gutting of one-third of the newspaper’s employees.

Last week’s layoffs noticed the elimination of its sports activities and books protection and a cutback of its international information workforce.

The Washington Post’s government editor, Matt Murray, stated in a memo to staff, which was obtained by a number of information shops, “The need has never been more urgent to reposition The Post. A more flexible, sustainable model will help us better navigate unprecedented volatility, competition, technological change, news-consumption habits, and cost pressure.”

Brown, identified for her management roles at Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The Daily Beast, criticized how Bezos, founding father of Amazon, is working The Washington Postwhereas taking a jab at Lewis, who stepped down as writer and CEO of the newspaper days after the mass layoffs.

In a Substack publish on Monday, Brown stated the layoffs “revealed the stark truth that Bezos doesn’t understand how to run a news organization any more than Woodward and Bernstein could figure out how to deliver dog kibble to your door by drone,” referring to the Washington Post journalists who uncovered the Watergate scandal.

Brown stated that Bezos, who purchased The Washington Post in 2013, was a “staunch steward of Post values” throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period, however stated he now “appears to have checked out of the Post.”

Noting Bezos’ rise in internet price to greater than $200 billion, Brown stated, “You might think a fortune that stratospheric would make it easy to…not feel the need to curry favor with Trump by precipitously ending the Post’s 36-year tradition of endorsing presidential candidates, just 11 days before the 2024 election, a decision that instantly lost the paper 250,000 hard-won subscribers.”

“The Jeff Bezos who bought the Post was a different guy from the one who is allowing its destruction now. But oligarchs gonna oligarch,” Brown stated.

In denouncing Lewis, Brown talked about his reported crimson carpet look on the NFL Honors ceremony forward of the Super Bowl final week.

“The junket schmooze was always Lewis’s MO,” Brown claimed, referring to networking accomplished on journeys, usually paid for, that might form protection.

Brown requested, “Why did Bezos allow Lewis to fail and flail for so long? The answer can only be that, by that time, Bezos didn’t much care.”

In an electronic mail despatched to employees and shared by The Washington Post’s White House bureau chief, Matt Viser, Lewis thanked Bezos “for his support” and stated, “During my tenure, difficult decisions have been taken in order to ensure the sustainable future of The Post.”

Bezos stated in a press release saying that Jeff D’Onofrio would take over as appearing writer and CEO, “Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus.”

The Independent has reached out to The Washington Post and Lewis for remark.