• CEO Will Lewis resigns following mass layoffs affecting one-third of the Washington Post's workforce.
• Layoffs included major cuts to international news, sports coverage, and the entire Middle East staff.
• Jeff D'Onofrio, the CFO, will serve as acting publisher and CEO after Lewis’s departure.

Will Lewis, CEO and publisher of the Washington Post, announced his resignation on Saturday, just three days after the newspaper laid off approximately one-third of its staff. In a message to employees, Lewis stated that it was "the right time for me to step aside," emphasizing that "difficult decisions have been taken" to ensure the paper's future. Jeff D'Onofrio, the paper's chief financial officer, will take over as acting publisher and CEO, according to Reuters and CBS News.

The layoffs announced earlier this week were deeper than many anticipated, resulting in significant cutbacks to the newspaper's sports and international coverage, alongside the dismissal of its entire Middle East staff and its correspondent in Ukraine. This led to backlash from employees and readers, with prominent figures like former executive editor Marty Baron labeling the layoffs as "among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations," according to SCMP, Le Monde, and BBC.

Lewis’s tenure began under tumultuous circumstances, including financial struggles and a shift in the editorial direction dictated by the Washington Post's owner, Jeff Bezos. Critics highlighted that Bezos’s decision to refrain from endorsing a presidential candidate during a critical election cycle contributed significantly to subscriber loss and increasing dissatisfaction among the workforce, as detailed in reports from Los Angeles Times and other sources.