Lots of of The Washington Submit workers despatched a letter to Jeff Bezos on Tuesday night time, asking the Amazon founder for a gathering amid widespread concern concerning the paper’s future.
The letter, signed by greater than 400 staffers, together with many outstanding reporters and editors, doesn’t criticize anybody by identify. However the signatories are mentioned to be broadly involved about The Submit’s management.
“We’re deeply troubled by latest administration choices which have precipitated readers to query the integrity of this establishment, which has damaged the custom of transparency and precipitated a few of our most distinguished colleagues to depart, with extra departures to return,” the letter mentioned. .
A spokeswoman for The Washington Submit declined to remark. A spokesman for Mr. Bezos, who owns The Submit, didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The letter, which was beforehand reported by NPR, mentioned the issues had been unrelated to Mr. Bezos’s latest choice to finish his endorsement of presidential candidates, which the signatories acknowledged was the “prerogative of the proprietor.”
As an alternative, based on the letter, the issues are about “sustaining our aggressive benefit, rebuilding the belief that has been misplaced and rebuilding a relationship with management based mostly on open communication.”
The corporate’s CEO, Will Lewis, has been the main focus of rising discontent at The Submit for months. The Newsroom Editor-in-Chief, Sally Busby, give way in June after deciding to reorganize the newsroom. Mr. Lewis’s alternative to switch her, Robert Wynette, withdrew from evaluation after employees response. A number of Submit opinion staffers resigned from the editorial board after the choice to end of presidential endorsementsand The Submit’s Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist leave after a cartoon depicting Mr. Bezos bowing to a statue of President-elect Donald J. Trump. The Submit additionally noticed a big lack of subscriptions.
Over the previous few weeks, a number of reporters, together with political reporters Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and Michael Scherer, to the left or depart publications together with The Atlantic and The Wall Road Journal.
The letter ends with a request for Mr. Bezos to go to The Submit’s places of work to fulfill with the paper’s employees. He did such a journey to The Submit in 2023, amid widespread discontent towards Fred Ryan, the previous writer of The Washington Submit. Mr. Ryan stepped down later that 12 months.
