The Washington Post appoints acting CEO Jeff D’Onofrio after publisher and CEO Will Lewis resigns

Leadership change follows sweeping newsroom cuts and a turbulent restructuring period at the Bezos-owned newspaper

The Washington Post has named Chief Financial Officer Jeff D’Onofrio as acting publisher and chief executive officer after Will Lewis resigned from the top job, effective immediately. The change comes days after the newspaper carried out broad layoffs that reduced staffing across major desks and eliminated entire coverage areas.

Lewis was appointed publisher and CEO in November 2023 and began the role on Jan. 2, 2024, succeeding interim CEO Patty Stonesifer. His tenure centered on a corporate and newsroom reorganization aimed at reversing financial losses and adapting the business to shifting audience behavior and advertising markets.

The leadership transition lands amid one of the most significant contractions in the newspaper’s recent history. The Post recently cut roughly one-third of its staff in a restructuring that included the closure of the standalone sports section and the elimination of books coverage, along with reductions in foreign bureaus and other teams. The cuts were presented internally as a move to focus resources and stabilize the organization as technology and consumer habits change.

D’Onofrio, who joined The Post as CFO in June 2025, now takes over on an interim basis. Prior to arriving at The Post, he held senior executive roles across technology and digital media, including at Tumblr and Google, and served as CFO at Raptive. In messages to staff accompanying the leadership change, he acknowledged the disruption of the past week and framed the immediate task as restoring operational footing while sustaining the newsroom’s core mission.

Lewis’s time at The Post also coincided with high-profile leadership changes in the newsroom. In June 2024, executive editor Sally Buzbee stepped down and was replaced by Matt Murray, the former editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal, as the organization introduced a new structure intended to differentiate core coverage from service and social-media-oriented journalism. David Shipley continued to oversee the opinion operation, which is organizationally distinct from the news report.

The newspaper’s recent internal strains followed broader reputational and business pressures. In October 2024, Jeff Bezos ended The Post’s practice of presidential endorsements through its editorial board, a move that triggered a large wave of subscription cancellations and renewed scrutiny over the boundary between ownership decisions and independent journalism.

• Will Lewis began as publisher and CEO on Jan. 2, 2024.
• Jeff D’Onofrio joined as CFO in June 2025 and is now acting publisher and CEO.
• Recent layoffs eliminated the sports section and cut multiple coverage areas, including books and several foreign bureaus.

The leadership shift marks an inflection point for The Post as it attempts to rebuild readership, stabilize revenues, and define its editorial scope after months of restructuring and staff reductions.

The Post has not announced a timeline for selecting a permanent publisher and CEO. In the near term, D’Onofrio will oversee business operations while working alongside the existing editorial leadership as the newsroom adapts to a narrower footprint and revised coverage priorities.