Former Tumblr head Jeff D’Onofrio steps in as acting CEO at the Washington Post
After what can generously be described as a controversial tenure as CEO of The Washington PostWill Lewis resigns following massive layoffs this week. Jeff D’Onofrio, former CEO of Tumblr from 2017 to 2022, will serve as interim CEO and publisher. D’Onofrio has been the Post’s chief financial officer since June of last year, meaning he’s had a front-row seat to Jeff Bezos’ dismantling of the once-famous newspaper over the past nine months.
D’Onofrio’s resume does not include extensive experience in traditional news media, nor many notable achievements. He was briefly CEO of Yahoo News while the company was still owned by Verizon, before focusing solely on Tumblr. Under his leadership, Tumblr tried to improve its image by banning adult content, but its traffic dropped by 30%. Yahoo bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion in 2013. In 2019, it was sold to Automatic, the owner of WordPress, for less than $3 million.
