Sally Buzbee steps down as executive editor of The Washington Post

The tumultuous occasions of The Washington Put up continued Sunday night time, with maybe the most important shakeup of all.

Govt editor Sally Buzbee has stepped down.

In a observe to employees, comparatively new writer and CEO Will Lewis introduced that Buzbee left the Put up “successfully instantly.” Matt Murray, the previous editor-in-chief of The Wall Avenue Journal, is coming aboard the paper and might be government editor via the 2024 election.

In his observe, Lewis then wrote that after that, “Robert Winnett, Deputy Editor of Telegraph Media Group, will run information and options in a newly created function centered on our core providing.”

Lewis then introduced one thing new. He wrote, “I’m excited to let you recognize that later this 12 months we might be launching a brand new division of the newsroom completely devoted to higher serving audiences who need to devour and pay for information in a different way from conventional choices. This third newsroom might be comprised of service and social media journalism and run individually from the core information operation. The goal is to present the hundreds of thousands of Individuals — who really feel conventional information just isn’t for them however nonetheless need to be stored knowledgeable — compelling, thrilling and correct information the place they’re and within the fashion that they need.”

Murray will take over that division after the election, as Winnett takes over the core information division. David Shipley will stay head of the Put up’s opinions part, which is separate from the newsroom. All three will report back to Lewis, who was named writer and CEO by Put up proprietor Jeff Bezos late final 12 months.

Buzbee’s sudden departure comes simply two weeks after Lewis laid out a brand new plan for the longer term after telling employees the Put up had misplaced $77 million over the previous 12 months, and had a 50% drop off in viewers since 2020. He advised employees in an all-hands assembly on the time, “To be direct, we’re in a gap, and we have now been for a while.”

The Washington Put up’s Amy Argetsinger wrote, “The shakeup on the high of the Put up is the most important transfer by removed from Lewis — himself a veteran of each the Telegraph and the Journal — since he took over as CEO in January.”

Buzbee joined the Put up as government editor in 2021 after a profession at The Related Press. She was the AP’s government editor when she left to exchange the legendary Marty Baron, who introduced his retirement from the Put up in January 2021. Buzbee was the primary feminine editor of the Put up, which was based in 1877.

The New York Instances’ Katie Robertson and Benjamin Mullin wrote, “The Put up significantly expanded its modifying ranks beneath Ms. Buzbee, asserting the addition of roughly 41 positions in 2021, and revamping its vaunted Types part. The paper additionally shut down its Sunday journal, a transfer that upset most of the newspaper’s function writers. It has obtained six Pulitzer Prize awards since she joined, three of them this 12 months.”

The suspicious timing (late on a Sunday) and the truth that Buzbee is leaving “efficient instantly” would lead one to imagine that this was not a cordial parting. In his observe, Lewis talked about the Put up’s success, together with the awards, beneath Buzbee and added, “Please be a part of me in thanking Sally for all that she has carried out throughout her time with us.”

In accordance with the Put up, Lewis stated, “Sally is an unbelievable chief and a supremely gifted media government who might be sorely missed. I want her all the perfect going ahead.”

Paul Farhi, a longtime media author on the Put up earlier than taking a buyout late final 12 months, tweeted, “What this finally means: The main newspaper within the capital of the USA will quickly have a British-born writer and a British editor in chief. … On a really fundamental degree: the brand new boss (Lewis, who began Jan. 1) will get to select his personal workforce. That is the brand new workforce — three folks with no historical past on the Put up now working the Put up.”

I’m positive there might be extra to observe up on this story within the coming days and weeks.

Should you can’t ban ‘em, be a part of ‘em.

In 2020, when Donald Trump was president, he tried to ban TikTok with an government order. Trump — and he actually was and isn’t alone — feared that the Chinese language-owned app posed a nationwide safety menace. ByteDance, a Chinese language firm, owns TikTok, and there may be fear that the Chinese language authorities might power ByteDance at hand over knowledge that will compromise U.S. customers. TikTok stated it has not shared U.S. knowledge with the Chinese language authorities and would by no means achieve this.

Nonetheless, there has all the time been that concern.

Trump’s plan to close down TikTok ended after TikTok sued and the courts blocked Trump’s ban.

However the American struggle towards TikTok didn’t finish there. Earlier this 12 months, the Home overwhelmingly voted (352-65) to power ByteDance to promote TikTok, or else it might be banned from app shops offered by, for instance, Apple and Google in the USA. President Joe Biden signed the invoice, though it nonetheless faces authorized challenges.

When the federal government was working towards ending what Trump began, he softened his stance on TikTok.

The Related Press’ Jill Colvin, Will Weissert and Meg Kinnard wrote, “Trump stated earlier this 12 months that he nonetheless believes TikTok posed a nationwide safety danger, however was against banning it as a result of that will assist its rival, Fb, which he continues to criticize over his 2020 election loss to Biden.”

Trump advised CNBC on the time, “Frankly, there are lots of people on TikTok that like it. There are plenty of younger youngsters on TikTok who will go loopy with out it.”

After Biden signed the invoice to power ByteDance to promote TikTok, Trump wrote on his Reality Social, “Younger folks, keep in mind: Crooked Joe Biden is the one that desires to take your TikTok away from you.”

Over the weekend, Trump determined to embrace TikTok by becoming a member of the app. In a video on — the place else(?) — TikTok from the Final Preventing Championship struggle in New Jersey, Trump stated it was an “honor” to affix the app. UFC president Dana White launched him within the video and stated, “The president is now on TikTok.”

That was Saturday night time. However Sunday morning, Trump had picked up greater than 1.1 million followers and the video had greater than 1 million likes and, by Sunday afternoon, greater than 38 million views.

It needs to be famous that Biden’s marketing campaign, though not Biden himself, is on TikTok. That account solely has about 336,000 followers.

In a press release, Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump marketing campaign, stated, “We’ll go away no entrance undefended and this represents the continued outreach to a youthful viewers consuming pro-Trump and anti-Biden content material.”

Trump marketing campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt stated in a press release, “We refuse to cede any floor to Biden and the Democrats. We’ll get President Trump’s successful message to each voter attainable. He has already gained important floor with younger voters and that is one other method to attain them.”

Final Friday’s Poynter Report recapped media protection within the instant aftermath of Trump being discovered responsible on all 34 costs in his hush cash trial.

However what concerning the subsequent day, after Trump gave a teleprompter-free, 40-minute, take-no-questions speech?

The three predominant cable information networks — CNN, Fox Information and MSNBC — all carried Trump’s remarks dwell, as did NBC. The opposite two predominant networks, ABC and CBS, didn’t interrupt common programming. Nevertheless, CNN, MSNBC and NBC all lower away from Trump’s remarks whereas he was nonetheless talking.

The New York Instances’ Michael M. Grynbaum wrote, “Mr. Trump started by talking in his traditional discursive, dissembling method. He unleashed a litany of false statements about his Manhattan trial, attacking witnesses, calling the decide the ‘satan’ and falsely accusing President Biden of being concerned within the prosecution.”

NBC bailed about 20 minutes into Trump’s remarks, with “NBC Nightly Information” anchor Lester Holt saying on air, “We have been advised this was going to be a information convention.”

NBC Information had two authorized analysts go over a few of Trump’s phrases and fact-checked him in actual time. Holt, at one level, stated, “There isn’t any proof that Biden was behind any of this.”

The Related Press’ David Bauder wrote, “Each CNN and MSNBC instantly advised viewers that a few of what Trump had stated was deceptive or flat-out false.”

On air, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer stated, “Clearly, and not using a teleprompter, he’s raging towards virtually all the pieces.” MSNBC had an on-screen graphic that learn, “Trump Put up-Verdict Remarks Riddled With Lies and Assaults.”

Fox Information, in addition to conservative community Newsmax, carried Trump’s remarks in full. Writing for the Instances, Grynbaum reported, “The New York Instances, on its web site, had a livestream of Mr. Trump’s look for about six minutes earlier than chopping the feed and persevering with to publish written updates on its weblog.”

You needed to assume that an unfiltered Trump was going to go on an unhinged and lie-laden rant, so why did the accountable information networks carry his speech? As a result of, as Holt defined, there was initially a perception that Trump was going to take questions.

Rupert Murdoch has tied the knot. Once more. The 93-year-old media mogul — and man behind Fox Information, The Wall Avenue Journal, New York Put up, amongst many different media shops — married for the fifth time over the weekend. He married 67-year-old Elena Zhukova, a retired molecular biologist. The wedding comes a few 12 months after Murdoch referred to as off his transient engagement with Ann Lesley Smith.

The Murdoch-Zhukova ceremony came about at Murdoch’s California winery and property. The Related Press reported that Zhukova’s ex-husband is Alexander Zhukov, a billionaire power investor and Russian politician. Their daughter, Dasha, was beforehand married to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who used to personal the Premier League soccer membership Chelsea.

Final September, Murdoch stepped down as chair of Fox Corp. and government chairman of Information Corp. His son Lachlan is now in cost, though Rupert nonetheless serves in an emeritus function.

Have suggestions or a tip? E mail Poynter senior media author Tom Jones at [email protected].

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