The executive editor of The Washington Post, Sally Buzbee, will step down from her role, a major and sudden change at one of the nation’s pre-eminent news organizations.
Matt Murray, the former editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal, will take her place through the presidential election, the company said on Sunday night. Robert Winnett, a deputy editor of the Telegraph Media Group, will take over after the election.
Mr. Murray will transition to a new role after the election, building a new newsroom within The Washington Post focused on service and social media journalism.
Ms. Buzbee, 58, steered the newspaper for the last three years, a turbulent period that resulted in award-winning journalism as well as a drop in audience and an exodus of some top talent from the newsroom.
Ms. Buzbee and Mr. Murray didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
“Sally is an incredible leader and a supremely talented media executive who will be sorely missed,” Will Lewis, the chief executive and publisher of The Post, said in a statement. “I wish her all the best going forward.”
Mr. Lewis has set about remaking the top ranks of the newspaper since he was appointed last year. In April, The Post announced the addition of Suzi Watford, a former top executive at Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, as its chief strategy editor. In January, The Post named Karl Wells as its chief growth officer, a position responsible for subscription strategy, partnerships, licensing and data analytics.
At a town hall last month, Mr. Lewis updated employees on his strategy for reviving the business and revealed the extent of The Post’s financial woes, including that it lost more than $70 million in 2023 and suffered a substantial decline in audience.
Mr. Murray, 58, led The Journal for four years, a job he was appointed to by Mr. Lewis, who was then the chief executive of Dow Jones and publisher of The Journal. Mr. Murray was replaced in 2023 by the British editor Emma Tucker. He has since served as a consultant to News Corp, which owns The Journal, and has worked as a contributing editor to News Items, an email newsletter publication.
Ms. Buzbee joined The Post in June 2021 after serving as executive editor of The Associated Press, where she spent her whole career. She took over The Post from Marty Baron, a legendary newspaper editor who had run The Post for eight years and oversaw its transition to ownership by Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, who bought the paper for $250 million in 2013.
The Post greatly expanded its editing ranks under Ms. Buzbee, announcing the addition of roughly 41 positions in 2021, and revamping its vaunted Styles section. The paper also shut down its Sunday magazine, a move that upset many of the newspaper’s feature writers. It has received six Pulitzer Prize awards since she joined, three of them this year.
Fred Ryan, the former chief executive of the company, stepped down last June, and was replaced in the interim by Patty Stonesifer, an Amazon board member. Ms. Stonesifer, a confidant of Mr. Bezos, assessed the company and soon determined that it needed to cut about 240 jobs in order to become economically sustainable. Ms. Stonesifer led the search for her successor, and recruited Mr. Lewis to The Post last year.