“Working at The Post feels like being on the Titanic after it struck an iceberg — drifting aimlessly as it sank”

If “Why I’m Leaving New York” was the cliché essay topic of the 2010s, “Why I Left The Washington Post” is making a strong bid as the 2025 equivalent. There are so many entries, from Ruth Marcus to Robert Kagan to Ann Telnaes to Joe Davidson to Jennifer Rubin to Jonathan Capeheart to Perry Bacon to Dave Jorgenson and many, many more. (The more niche “Why I’m Joining The Washington Post” sub-genre has received mixed reviews.)

The latest entry is a compelling one, from Glenn Kessler, a 27-year Post veteran who had written The Fact-Checker column since 2011, meting out Pinocchios to the political class. He details a lot of interesting backstory — like that time publisher Will Lewis asked him “What should The Post do to appeal more to Fox News viewers?” three times within an hour. But the main thing I’m left with is just how rudderless an institution the newspaper has become. We’re now approaching two years since Lewis was hired as publisher, and despite all his bromides about the need for fundamental reinvention, there remains almost no meat on that bone:

…in terms of building readership, the new editorial policy [of promoting “personal liberties and free markets”] didn’t make sense. The Post’s liberal columnists generated huge traffic — that’s because of the liberal slant of the readership — and now they’ve all quit. Every day, I checked the daily traffic numbers and, year over year, it was like being on a waterslide — with no bottom.

Meanwhile, Lewis, from his email perch, bombarded the staff with corporate lingo — “a significant reinvention journey” — that gave no sense of direction. A staff-wide meeting led by new executive editor Matt Murray didn’t provide much clarity. As far as I could understand, The Post was going to try to appeal to people who weren’t necessarily committed to news. Well, The New York Times figured that out ten years ago, expanding into games, sports, cooking and product recommendations. The Post was just eating its dust.

…there is no vision, no game plan, and no commitment to build on existing traffic. Instead, the buyouts have removed some of The Post’s biggest traffic generators — and I don’t see a strategy to replace what has been lost. Lewis invested time and resources in creating what he called “a third newsroom” — his one big idea — but the effort was abruptly dropped last month, and the manager who had led it also took the buyout.

I do not know a single person who left The Post because they did not embrace the organization’s “reinvention” as it was a chimera…working at The Post feels like being on the Titanic after it struck an iceberg — drifting aimlessly as it sank, with not enough lifeboats for everyone. The Carpathia (i.e., Bezos) appears too far away and too distracted to help. And the captain is shouting commands that the solution is a different ship.