Washington Post editorial board has zero people of color

Jonathan Capehart give up the Washington Publish editorial board after a dispute over an editorial about 2024 politics, leaving the paper with an all-white editorial board, Axios has realized.

Why it issues: Capehart left the board at a time when the Publish — primarily based in a metropolis the place almost half the inhabitants is Black — is swirling in inner discontent over the paper’s management.

By comparability, the New York Instances editorial board has three individuals of colour.

State of play: Since becoming a member of the Publish as a member of its editorial board in 2007, Capehart has change into one of many paper’s most seen and influential faces.

• Capehart — who stays a Publish columnist, affiliate editor and podcaster — give up in December as a member of the board, which debates editorials that characterize the views of the Publish as an establishment.
• He was the one Black particular person on the board for the previous 15 years.

What occurred: Capehart, a Black and homosexual Pulitzer winner, left the board in early December after a disagreement over a Dec. 6. editorial in regards to the runoff between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Herschel Walker.

• He turned in his resignation to Publish editorial web page editor David Shipley shortly after the piece ran.
• A Publish spokesperson instructed Axios that the Publish’s Opinion part “is dedicated to various illustration in all its pages” and that the part “plans to additional develop the vary of voices within the months to return.”
• “Writers like Keith Richburg and Mili Mitra frequently contribute editorials. In latest months, the part additionally introduced the addition of a number of contributing columnists together with Theodore Johnson, Natasha Sarin and Bina Venkataraman, amongst a number of others,” the spokesperson stated.

The large image: The run-in between Capehart and the Publish underscores the yearslong tensions on the paper over cultural points.

• Wesley Lowrey, a Black, Pulitzer Prize-winning former Publish columnist, steered in a 2020 tweet shortly after leaving the paper that his job was threatened “for talking out about mainstream media failures to correctly cowl and contextualize problems with race.”

What to observe: The Washington Publish continues to face enterprise strain as opponents just like the New York Instances develop.

• The Publish didn’t break even final 12 months, due to heavy investments in new editorial verticals meant to develop its nationwide footprint.
• Prime-level executives from the Publish’s newsroom and enterprise aspect participated in an offsite retreat two weeks in the past to debate the paper’s technique and focus, one month after the paper lower 20 newsroom jobs and shut down its gaming part.