Candidates for the top news job at The Washington Post have withdrawn themselves from consideration due to the paper’s strategies, it has been reported.
Sources involved with the process have reported two highly qualified candidates bowing out of talks to become the Post's executive editor.
The role was previously held by Ben Bradlee, with Matt Murray in the interim, but the paper has yet to find a new permanent candidate, while they continue to reduced paid readership and revenue.
Cliff Levy of The New York Times and Anne Kornblut, a former Post editor herself, now with Meta, both reportedly withdrew from consideration for the top newsroom job over the paper's strategy, the sources involved say.
Levy is a two-time Pulitzer winner and deputy publisher of The Athletic and Wirecutter, and began his talks with the Post back in August, but bowed out last week, it was reported.
Kornblut was a Washington correspondent for the Boston Globe and the New York Times before becoming a Washington Post reporter and editor and is now currently Meta's vice president of global product content operations.
She decided not to move forward after initial conversations back in September, sources said.
The Post's publisher and CEO Will Lewis, who was personally selected by owner Jeff Bezos, has seemingly struggled with his pitch for the role and paper overall, with one person involved describing it the pitch as “foggy and uninspiring”.