Driving the news: The Washington Post on Sunday announced sweeping changes to its editorial structure and leadership, with its first-ever female executive editor Sally Buzbee stepping down to make way for Matt Murray, former editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal…. The Post is one of several major newsrooms trying to find new readers willing to pay for their journalism online before their traditional products die out.
1. CNN began testing a new strategy last month that asks readers to submit personal data, like their email addresses, if they want to continue reading a certain amount of daily articles for free.
- It marks the company’s most significant consumer-facing effort to begin re-establishing a direct-to-consumer relationship with readers after the fall of its subscription video app, CNN+, in 2022.
2. The Wall Street Journal, similarly, has undergone massive changes to its editorial structure under new editor Emma Tucker, including layoffs announced last week.
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On Wednesday, the paper introduced a new, multimillion-dollar brand advertising campaign geared toward broadening the Journal’s subscriber appeal to a wider set of business professionals, not just finance investors or C-suite executives.
3. ABC News President Kim Godwin, the first Black woman to lead a major broadcast news division, stepped down in May after staffers began to lose confidence in her leadership.
- Disney executive Debra OConnell will lead the news division for the time being.
The intrigue: Washington Post CEO Will Lewis came under intense fire at a staff meeting early Monday after the sudden announcement around Buzbee’s departure, Vanity Fair reports.
- At one point, he told the paper’s staff: “We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”
The big picture: More American media companies are focused on consumer revenue amid a weak advertising market and increasing threat from AI.