Washington Post employees ask Jeff Bezos to meet

Hundreds of Washington Post employees sent a letter to Jeff Bezos on Tuesday evening, requesting a meeting with the Amazon founder, amid widespread concern about the future of the newspaper.

The letter, which was signed by more than 400 employees, including many prominent journalists and editors, does not criticize anyone by name. But it says the signatories are largely concerned about the direction of the Post.

“We are deeply alarmed by recent leadership decisions that have led readers to question the integrity of this institution, broken with a tradition of transparency, and caused some of our most prominent colleagues to leave, with other imminent departures,” the letter states.

A Washington Post spokeswoman declined to comment. A spokesman for Mr. Bezos, who owns the Post, did not respond to a request for comment.

The letter, reported earlier by NPR, said the concerns were not related to Mr. Bezos’ recent decision to end his support for presidential candidates, which the signatories recognized as “the prerogative of the owner.”

Instead, according to the letter, the concerns are about “retaining our competitive advantage, restoring the trust that has been lost, and reestablishing a relationship with leadership based on open communication.”

The company’s chief executive, Will Lewis, has been at the center of growing discontent within the Post for months. The newsroom’s managing editor, Sally Buzbee, resigned in June after deciding to reorganize the newsroom. Mr. Lewis’ choice to replace her, Robert Winnett, was withdrawn after a negative reaction from staff. Several Post opinion staffers resigned from the editorial board after the decision to end presidential endorsements, and the Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist resigned after a drawing depicting Mr. Bezos genuflecting died in front of a statue of President-elect Donald J. Trump. La Poste also experienced a significant loss of subscriptions.

In recent weeks, several journalists, including political reporters Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey and Michael Scherer, have left or are leaving for publications such as The Atlantic and The Wall Street Journal.

The letter ends by asking Mr. Bezos to come to the Post offices to meet with the newspaper’s staff. He made a similar trip to the Post in 2023, amid widespread discontent with Fred Ryan, the former Washington Post publisher. Mr. Ryan resigned later that year.