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Last Will and Testament

The final days of The Washington Post’s publisher and C.E.O. were more cowardly and craven than even the newsroom imagined—with elevator closures and a stealth flight from town. Now that he’s gone, the staff is thoroughly demoralized… and wondering how Jeff Bezos will avoid making the same mistake again.

will lewis
Will had spent most of his tenure at the Post in a psychological bunker, spurned by staff who resisted his “third newsroom” restructuring effort, chafed at the paper’s Trump 2.0–era editorial overhaul, and generally regarded him as a glib and incompetent charlatan. Photo: Elliott O'Donovan for The Washington Post/Getty Images
Dylan Byers
February 11, 2026

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Late last week, Jeff Bezos told Will Lewis, the now thoroughly disgraced publisher and C.E.O. of The Washington Post, that he would need to resign. In truth, Bezos had been souring on Will for months, according to well-placed sources. But he’d been particularly displeased with how Will had managed—or rather, neglected to manage—last week’s sweeping layoffs, which eliminated a third of the company and doused accelerant on the existential anxieties of the Washington media class.