February 4, 2026: A flyer opposing the Washington Post ’s crippling job cuts. Photo: Kathleen Floyd When Will Lewis arrived at the Washington Post in January 2024, he was received as a potential redeemer. The Post had lost $77 million the previous year under Lewis’s predecessor as publisher and CEO, Fred Ryan, an affable man about town who was once Ronald Reagan’s post-presidential chief of staff. “The state of the paper when Fred left was really bad,” says a senior staffer on the business side.