Washington Post CEO Fred Ryan will step down later this summer, after nearly a decade in the position, he informed staff on Monday. Ryan, in a memo to the newsroom, said he would step down in August to head up a new project on public civility at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. Ryan said the project has the support of Jeff Bezos, who purchased the Post in 2013 and hired Ryan to lead it. The Post eliminated nearly two dozen newsroom positions in January, citing the current “economic climate.”A month earlier, Ryan was shouted at by members of the Post’s employees union during a town hall event during which he addressed the planned layoffs. Ryan told the Post his departure had “nothing to do with that” saying “I firmly believe there is a sound model for successful journalism and The Washington Post is well positioned to do that.”A former aide to president Ronald Reagan, Ryan was a founding executive at Politico before Bezos hired him to run the Post.

Source: Washington Post June 12, 2023 18:44 UTC