From a New York Times story by Rachel Abrams and Katie Robertson headlined “Washington Post Names A.P. Editor, Sally Buzbee, as Its Top Editor”:
After nearly a decade of revitalization under the ownership of the multibillionaire Jeff Bezos and the newsroom leadership of Martin Baron, The Washington Post announced that it had selected Sally Buzbee, the executive editor of The Associated Press, as its next top editor.
Ms. Buzbee, who is scheduled to start on June 1, will be the first woman to serve as The Post’s No. 1 editor since the paper started publishing in 1877….
Ms. Buzbee, 55, has spent her career at The A.P., starting in 1988 as a reporter in her home state of Kansas and becoming its executive editor and a senior vice president in 2017. Along the way she led the news agency’s coverage of the 2012 and 2016 elections as its Washington bureau chief….
Ms. Buzbee’s next assignment will be to build on the gains made at a publication that has been restored to health under Mr. Bezos, who bought The Post in 2013, and Mr. Baron, who led the paper to 10 Pulitzer Prizes and other journalism awards during his eight years at the helm.
It is a much different paper from the one Mr. Baron inherited when he was brought in by the previous ownership, the Graham family, which had owned it for some 80 years before selling it to Mr. Bezos for $250 million.
Since the Amazon founder’s arrival, The Post has become a digitally savvy news operation with more than 1,000 journalists on staff, up from 580 at the time of his arrival. Its audience has also increased from a daily circulation under 500,000 in 2013, which was then the seventh largest readership of any American paper, to three million digital subscribers, second only to The New York Times.
Ms. Buzbee’s experience at The A.P. has more than prepared her for the increased size, speed and scope of The Post. The news agency she has overseen the last four years has 250 bureaus in 99 nations. It provides roughly 730,000 articles, 70,000 videos and one million photographs each year to the more than 15,000 outlets and businesses that subscribe to its content.
The A.P. also has a key role in presidential elections, tracking vote counts in 50 states and before making the call on who, in its determination, will be the next president — a role it has played in every election since 1848….
Ms. Buzbee was also considered this year for the top newsroom job at The Los Angeles Times, which went this month to ESPN’s Kevin Merida, a former managing editor of The Post.
The A.P. said in a statement that Ms. Buzbee would leave at the end of May and the organization would immediately begin a search for its next executive editor. The A.P.’s president and chief executive, Gary Pruitt, said in a statement that Ms. Buzbee had been “an exceptional leader.”
“We are sorry to lose Sally but very happy for her as she takes this next step in her career,” he said.
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Rachel Abrams is a media reporter for The New York Times. She was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for public service for reporting that exposed sexual harassment and misconduct.
Katie Robertson is a media reporter. She previously worked as an editor and reporter at Bloomberg and News Corporation Australia.
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