Washington Post

The Washington Post has named longtime journalist Sally Buzbee of the Associated Press as its executive editor, marking the first time a woman has been appointed to lead the 143-year-old news organization. Buzbee, AP’s executive editor and senior vice president, will take over leadership of the Post’s nearly 1,000-person newsroom next month, said publisher Fred Ryan, who made the announcement to the newspaper’s staff on Tuesday.

The Trump Justice Department secretly seized the phone records of three Washington Post reporters who covered the federal investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, the newspaper said Friday.

The Washington Post has tapped Cameron Barr, one of four managing editors, to be its acting executive editor ahead of Marty Baron’s exit on Feb. 28. “The search for the next executive editor is actively underway with a broad and diverse group of exceptional journalists,” said Publisher Fred Ryan who is heading the search. “It will not be complete prior to Marty’s departure at the end of this month.”

In an industrywide changing of the guard, other big newsroom jobs that have come open include the No. 1 slots at Vox, HuffPost and Wired. Above, Martin Baron, the executive editor of The Washington Post, announced this week that he was stepping down after a 45-year career.

Martin Baron, executive editor of the Washington Post and recipient of multiple Pulitzer Prizes over the course of his career, announced his retirement today. Baron spearheaded Spotlight, the Boston Globe’s investigation into attempts by the Catholic Church to cover-up sexual abuse, and oversaw the Post’s editorial transformation under Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — turning it from a regional paper into a national brand.

As the Murdoch tabloid navigates a fraught political moment, high-level editors instructed reporters not to base articles on reporting by four news outlets that President Trump has falsely labeled “fake news.”

Journalism is becoming a steadily more dangerous profession around the world, including in the United States. The year 2020, with its global pandemic and widespread social unrest, continued the trend. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists’ annual survey, more journalists were in prison on Dec. 1 — 274 — than in any previous year.

Growing chatter that Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron could soon retire is complicating searches for several other high-profile top news jobs, including the quest for a new head of the Los Angeles Times, media sources say.

Kat Downs Mulder has been named The Washington Post’s managing editor for digital, a top leadership role in which she will oversee online operations as well as video, photography, graphics, audio and other departments of the newsroom.

Lawrence Laurent, who became The Washington Post’s first television critic in 1953 and wrote about entertainment programming, news and industry developments for more than 20 years, died Aug. 1. He was 95. When he launched the beat at the paper, television was an entertainment phenomenon, expanding quickly and in unpredictable ways.

Becket Adams: “The only thing worse than a viral pandemic is the person who would weaponize it for political gain. The Washington Post published a report this week claiming conservative media may be responsible for the severity of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Are we really still doing this — even after members of the not-conservative press, healthcare officials, and elected representatives cheered and even participated in the massive rallies to protest the wrongful death of George Floyd?

Dave Jorgenson produces twice-daily posts geared to young audiences on nascent social video platform TikTok. In 10 months, he’s gained 400,000 subscribers there and tens of millions of views of his witty short videos, including tips on coronavirus hand washing and handshakes.

The Washington Post is tripling investment in Zeus, its revenue technology arm, sources tell Axios. The Post licenses Zeus products to other media companies to help them drive more ad revenue and create better user experiences.

Hamiloton Nolan: Ten years ago day-to-day media reporting in New York City, which meant that the media news cycle was anchored by what was happening at New York media companies. Many of those outlets have since faded away. Today, one of the biggest employers of media reporters and critics in America is … the Washington Post. Has the center of media writing shifted from Gotham to DC?

The lawsuit concerns two opinion articles that tied the 2016 Trump election campaign to Russia. A week ago, the campaign filed a similar action against The New York Times.

The Washington Post today announced new data-driven initiatives to enhance its political reporting and analysis designed to give readers faster and more robust results.

The Virginia Press Association asked Friday to intervene in a $50 million lawsuit Johnny Depp filed against Amber Heard, his ex-wife. Depp says he was defamed by an op-ed piece Heard wrote in The Washington Post in December 2018, in which she never identified Depp by name but referred to herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”

The Washington Post has introduced a new solution for advertisers called Zeus Prime. It’s intended to offer a solution to Google and Facebook for publishers and advertisers. The Post partnered with buy-side demand platform Polar to build the ad-buying user interface.

A skirmish involving President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Washington Post and MSNBC has escalated into unusual personal bitterness this week, with election security legislation and Trump’s attacks on U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings as the triggers.

With manipulated videos looming as the next big disinformation disruptor, The Washington Post is expanding its role in “accountability journalism,” launching a new platform for fact-checking manipulated video content. “The Fact Checker’s Guide to Manipulated Video” launches today with tools for and identifying and labeling various forms of online video manipulation.

It will add 11 technology roles based in San Francisco, Seattle and Washington.

After almost four years in the job, Washington Post Chief Revenue Officer Jed Hartman is no longer with the company, company executives informed staffers on Thursday. Kate Davey, vice president of revenue strategy, will serve as interim CRO.