Washington Post Editor Downie Announces Resignation

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NEW YORK — Leonard Downie Jr. said yesterday he is retiring as executive editor of The Washington Post after 17 years in that role, ending a storied newsroom career and making way for a new editor to lead the newspaper’s transition into the digital age.

Mr. Downie, who is 66, joined the Post as a summer intern in 1964 and worked up the ranks as an investigative reporter, a metro reporter and editor, London correspondent, and national editor. As deputy metro editor, he oversaw the paper’s Watergate coverage.

Mr. Downie said in an interview that he would stay on as a vice president at large at the Washington Post Co., the same title held by his predecessor Ben Bradlee. Mr. Downie said he wouldn’t have any day-to-day involvement in the newsroom following his retirement, which becomes official September 8.

The Washington Post won many accolades during Mr. Downie’s tenure, including 25 Pulitzer Prizes, six of them this year. But like other newspapers the Post also struggled with shrinking circulation and declining advertising revenues as more ad dollars move online, leading to three rounds of job cuts.

Katherine Weymouth, a 42-year-old member of the Graham family, which controls The Washington Post Co., became publisher of the Post in February and has been considering candidates to replace Mr. Downie, whose retirement had been expected.


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