JUST IN: Washington Post Publisher Fred Ryan Stepping Down After Turbulent Year

Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan. AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill.

The publisher and CEO of the Washington Post is leaving the company in August, he told staff on Monday.

The Post’s own media team broke the news that Fred Ryan, who has led the Jeff Bezos-owned paper for the last nine years, will lead the Center on Public Civility at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.

The director of the Amazon board, Patty Stonesifer, will serve as interim CEO of the Post, the paper reported.

In an interview with the Post, Ryan denied that his departure is related to current woes in the media industry. The Post has undergone newsroom layoffs in the last year.

“I firmly believe there is a sound model for successful journalism and The Washington Post is well positioned to do that,” Ryan said. “I have no doubt that the high quality journalism of the standard of The Washington Post will always be successful.”

Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, sent a memo to staff stressing that he is “grateful to Fred for his leadership and for the friendship that we’ve developed over the years.”

Despite the kind send off, Ryan’s retirement comes after a turbulent year for the Post and questions about his leadership.

During an awkward town hall with Post employees in December, Ryan surprised staff by announcing further cuts just one month after the shuttering of the paper’s magazine.

After facing a barrage of tough questions, Ryan pushed back on his staff. “We’re not going to turn the town hall into a grievance session,” he said. “I’m sorry, thank you.”

“It’s not a grievance session, it’s a question,” one shot back.

After Bezos hired Ryan in 2014, he presided over a period of growth that coincided with the Trump era boom for the media industry. Unlike the New York Times, however, the Post was seen as having failed to successfully diversify its offerings. In the years after Trump left office, the paper saw its subscribers drop by 500,000, and in 2022 lost money for the first time in years.