Who is Jeff D’Onofrio: The Washington Post new acting publisher and CEO appointed after mass layoffs and Will Lewis stepped down

On 8th February, Saturday, The Washington Post came with another big news after the major layoffs. The publisher and the CEO of the Washington Post, Will Lewis has stepped down from his current role after more than 300 employees were laid off.

This highlight the reason and and a moment for the organisation after the resignation came into the effect. About one third of the staff was impacted with a motive to restore the financial stability. As per the reports, $177 million was from past two years. The publication struggled to restore the profitable financial models which lead to major and mass layoffs.

Washington Post CEO Will Lewis steps down after layoffs

After Will Lewis stepped down as the CEO of The Washington Post, Jeff D’Onofrio announced as the acting publisher and CEO with immediate effect, marking a leadership transition during a pivotal period for the legacy newsroom navigating digital transformation. He is a digital media executive with extensive experience as CEO, CFO, COO. Jeff joined The Washington Post as the Chief Financial Officer in June 2025. As per his LinkedIn profile, his professional background revolve around the platforms in live streaming, review content, social media, e-commerce and more.

Jeff D’Ononfrio: New acting publisher and CEO’ background

Career and voluteering

Jeff did his bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Penn State University following with MBA General in 2009 from Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management. He also served as the Board Trustee in the National Jazz Museum in Harlen in fundraising, corporate sponsorship opportunities for the museum.

Experience in Google, Tumblr, Raptive and more

Till the time, Jeff had a strong background Business Operations from Google where worked for more than 2 years, followed with Yahoo, Tumblr as the Chief Financial Officer for more than 8 years. With a promotion to CEO or which he served for more than 4 years in Tumblr, New York.

The largest digital ad management company Raptive, Jeff served as the Chief Financial Officer in serving 6,000 creators and publishers. He oversaw finance, human resources and data analytics team whit negotiating key acquisitions that helped the company to potential profit growth as per the X post.

Career at The Washington Post

For serving 9 months as Chief Financial Officer in The Wahington Post, after Will Lewis stepped down as the CEO and publisher, Jeff D’Onofrio is now being selected as to succeed after him.

Will Lewis final farewell message to the employees and owner

Will Lewis was in charge to deal with the financial pressure with a motive of long-term sustainability. In his farewell message, Lewis said, ‘Now is the right time to step aside.’ He was grateful to the newspaper’s owner for the support and leadership. Lewis resignation came in a short span of time when the major layoffs were reported. Almost 300 journalists lost their jobs from which many were affected from sports and foreign news teams.

Th resignation just came with a final message which stated that under his leadership, he meant to protect the newspaper’s long-term mission.


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