‘PEOPLE ARE FREAKED OUT’

WaPo Reporters in ‘Existential Crisis’ After Latest Revelations About CEO

A New York Times report over Will Lewis’ reporting methods in the U.K. may be the final straw for Washington Post staffers.

A blockbuster scoop about Washington Post publisher Will Lewis and his incoming editor Rob Winnett’s reliance on stolen records sent shockwaves across the Post newsroom on Saturday, with multiple staffers expressing to Politico everything from alarm to “a collective ‘holy shit.’” The Times’ story was the latest in a series of poor headlines for the Fleet Street veteran, following a series of reports in The Daily Beast, the Times, and even from the Post’s own media desk over his fractured relationship with the newsroom after he pushed out executive editor Sally Buzbee. “I have asked my friends and family to stop sending me links to stories about Will Lewis,” one Post reporter told Politico. “Every scoop is worse than the last. I can’t focus on my work when each headline heightens what’s beginning to feel like an existential crisis.” The barrage of bad press has even prompted other staffers to ponder their future at the paper of Woodward and Bernstein. “People are like, ‘Do we really want to work here anymore?’” another reporter said. “People are freaked out. They, for the first time or in a long time, are considering exiting. I don’t think people want to be there if this is what it’s going to be like.”