After what can be generously called a questionable tenure as the CEO of the company The Washington PostWill Lewis is stepping down this week after mass redundancies. Jeff D’Onofrio, Tumblr’s former CEO from 2017 to 2022, will step in as acting CEO and publisher. D’Onofrio has been the Post’s CFO since last June, meaning he’s had a front-row seat to Jeff Bezos’ dismantling of the once-famous paper for the past nine months.
D’Onofrio’s resume does not include extensive experience in traditional news media or many notable accomplishments. He was briefly CEO of Yahoo News when it was still owned by Verizon before focusing solely on Tumblr. Under his leadership, Tumblr tried to clean up its image by banning adult content, but its traffic fell by 30 percent. Yahoo bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion in 2013. By 2019, it was sold to Automatic, the owner of WordPress, reportedly for less than $3 million.