Leaked WaPo memo reveals big changes coming to Jeff Bezos’ newsroom

• Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray detailed a newsroom reorganization in a memo to staff.
• He said the paper must evolve to new reader habits and sharpen its mission.
• The changes come after owner Jeff Bezos overhauled the paper’s opinion pages last month.

The shake-ups keep coming at Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post.

The Post’s executive editor, Matt Murray, detailed substantial changes to the newsroom Monday, including several new leadership roles and reorganized teams.

In a memo viewed by Business Insider, Murray said the paper needed to evolve to new reader habits and the rise of AI in a competitive news environment.

“That will mean less commodity news, a greater variety of story formats and a sharper focus on work that is truly riveting, relevant and reflecting a wider range of voices that speaks to a larger audience,” he wrote to staff.

“Where we have long thought of ourselves as a writer’s paper, we will become a reader’s news organization,” he added.

These new changes come after months of controversy surrounding the Post and its direction under Bezos’ ownership.

The Post last month overhauled its opinion pages, with Bezos announcing coverage would center on two key pillars: personal liberties and free markets. That decision resulted in a swath of subscription cancellations, NPR reported — a similar response that followed the Post’s decision not to run a Presidential endorsement in the last election.

Martin Baron, who was executive editor of the Post from 2013 to 2021, blasted the opinion changes at the time in a statement BI, saying he was “sad and disgusted.” Baron added that it had been counter to Bezos’ history of standing up for editorial independence at the Post during Baron’s tenure.

On Monday, columnist and associate editor Ruth Marcus became the latest prominent journalist to leave the Post. Marcus left after 40 years at the paper. She said a column she’d written that was critical of the opinion section changes had been axed.

“We’re grateful for Ruth’s significant contributions to The Washington Post over the past 40 years,” a Post spokesperson told BI in a statement. “We respect her decision to leave and wish her the best.”

As part of the paper’s ongoing reinvention, Murray announced two new leadership roles reporting to him — a managing editor to oversee the central news desk, and a head of print who will lead a team that’s separate from the digitally minded newsroom.

The paper is also splitting up its national department into two teams: one focused on politics and government — which Murray said will “remain a central pillar” — and the other on national reporting, covering issues and figures outside Washington.

Murray said the Post would also combine its business, technology, health and science, and climate teams together into a new department.

He added there would be new roles within WP Ventures, which is focused on social media and innovation.

“In News, we are embarked on a big effort involving all of us, and it is a disruptive one, admittedly,” Murray concluded. “I realize the path we are taking may not be for everyone—and that’s OK.”

You can read the memo in full below:

Dear All:

In January, I shared thoughts on our future, and the transformation work under way in the newsroom. As you have seen from job postings in recent days, we have begun the next phase, which includes the creation of new senior roles and new teams.

The process underway is exciting, and requires significant rethinking of what we do, how we do it and how we are organized to change and grow. My hope is that everyone at The Post shows up with energy, enthusiasm, and ambition as we work to reinvent ourselves for long-term success.

Our journalism has many strengths, as you demonstrate every day. We build on a proud legacy and a deep well of talent and commitment as we pursue our mission of providing fair, fact-based journalism, without fear or favor, to a broad audience across the country, work that informs, delights, and engages, and that holds power to account.

Now The Post needs to evolve with reader habits, new opportunities, and technological developments, particularly the smart use of AI as it continues to develop and dramatically reshape users’ experiences of news. To grow on- and off-platform in a more competitive news environment, we must focus fully on finding new audiences and meeting all audiences where they are. We will do that by broadening the topics we own and deepening the distinctiveness and expertise in our journalism. That will mean less commodity news, a greater variety of story formats and a sharper focus on work that is truly riveting, relevant and reflecting a wider range of voices that speaks to a larger audience. We will focus further on ambitious journalism–scoops, unique insights and must-read narratives, and smart analysis built on expertise.

Within the newsroom, we will become fully digitally oriented in our setup, workflows and journalism, better use data to shape coverage and publishing, and constantly innovate to improve our digital products and presentation with a far greater variety of formats. Text will no longer be a default and length no more a measure of quality.

Our decision-making, our commissioning and even the focus of our daily mission are very diffuse across the room and too often disconnected. That is part of why we write too many incremental stories or similar stories (many of which don’t get much readership) and sometimes lack enough diversity of content across departments. Our common future depends on having strong digital news products and maximizing their reach, but we don’t operate that way.

We must be obsessed with engagement, both what works and—being honest with ourselves —what doesn’t, from headlines through story selection and length. Where we have long thought of ourselves as a writer’s paper, we will become a reader’s news organization.

A focus in this phase is beefing up the central news desk to focus on our core digital products and drive more from the center of the newsroom. We will be hampered until we improve our daily budgeting and workflows and establish a better publishing schedule aligned with reader habits and improve our editing strength and management. To kick off the process of rebuilding the news desk, we have posted for a new Managing Editor role to build the desk up and to oversee the news day 24/7 and will upgrade digital output and presentation. The desk restructuring will lead to additional new roles as it proceeds. The job reports to me.

Two other new senior opportunities attached to the desk have been posted. We are hiring a Head of Print. This new role will first create a self-contained print production desk to fully ring-fence print from the rest of the newsroom and make it completely downstream, so the majority of us can focus our efforts on our growing digital products. Once the desk is built, the Head of Print will oversee production of the daily paper, keeping our print product lively, robust, visually strong and engaging. This role will report to me.

We also seek a Weekend Editor to manage the news desk and run the news day during the weekends. The Weekend Editor will report to the ME/News Hub, and work four days a week, starting Thursdays.

We also are reorganizing several news departments, with the aim of broadening the range of our coverage. The existing National department becomes two new departments, one focused on Politics and Government, and one on National reporting. Politics will encompass most of our reporters and editors covering the political scene and the government, which remain a central pillar for The Post. The Economics and Economic Policy team from Business will move to this department.

National, which incorporates the America team, the education team, and the GA desk in Washington, will have a remit to cover the United States and important issues and figures outside of Washington and across the country more broadly. We are posting the department head roles for both new departments, as well as several new reporting roles in each.

We also are bringing several teams—Business, Technology, Health & Science and Climate—together in a new department that will bring our readers to the frontiers of the 21st century — how businesses are transforming across the economy; how scientific and technological shifts are affecting daily life; and what it all means for people’s health, security and the planet. The department-head role also is being posted.

Each reorganized department will have a Senior Editor for Audience Growth and a Senior Editor for Visuals. The data editors will play central roles in our daily coverage, ensuring we are properly meeting reader opportunities, and the visuals roles will aim to further deepen digital storytelling across the newsroom. The reorganization allows us to better balance these resources across the room.

Along with new roles in these departments we have posted new reporting and editing opportunities to fill out some areas of coverage. They include new roles in WP Ventures, led by Krissah Thompson and Sam Henig, which continues to build out its new Creator Hub and new senior roles.

We are moving to quicky fill the new department-head roles, and from there other jobs. Once leadership is in place, each department will work through a content review with our project team, led by Mark Smith, and some details still remain to be fixed. We plan to have changes in place by no later than Monday, May 5, though more moves will certainly follow as we continue our reinvention project.

We have scheduled a meeting today at 3 p.m. in the Live Center on the fourth floor to talk about these changes and our ongoing transformation project. We will send a Zoom link for those unable to attend in person.

It is a time of change across all of The Post, as we know. In News, we are embarked on a big effort involving all of us, and it is a disruptive one, admittedly. I realize the path we are taking may not be for everyone—and that’s OK.

But we have a strong mission and commitment and many opportunities, even in a changing landscape, as we work to strengthen and secure The Post’s future. I’m proud of all your work and grateful for your continued contributions.

Matt