Inside The Washington Post’s Decision to Stop Presidential Endorsements

Post owner Jeff Bezos ended the decades-long practice, weeks after a discussion at a meeting in Miami. The move has drawn criticism in and outside the newsroom.

A tropical storm was heading toward Florida’s Gulf Coast in late September when senior news and opinion leaders of The Washington Post flew into Miami for a periodic meeting with Jeff Bezos, the newspaper’s billionaire owner.

During their visit — which included a working lunch at Mr. Bezos’ sprawling home on an exclusive island in Biscayne Bay and dinner at a nearby restaurant — David Shipley, The Post’s opinion editor, and Will Lewis, The Post’s chief executive and publisher, discussed plans for the future of the newspaper’s opinion section. The election, less than 45 days away, loomed large.

By the end of the meeting, according to four people familiar with it who spoke on condition of anonymity to relay private conversations, it appeared to Mr. Shipley and Mr. Lewis that Mr. Bezos had reservations about the Post endorsing either candidate in the presidential race. But they also thought he was open to persuasion.

Mr. Bezos’ ultimate decision, to end the Post’s decades-long practice of endorsing presidential candidates, exploded into public view on Friday, drawing criticism from reporters, editors and readers, along with an unusual rebuke from legendary Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

It came after additional discussion between Mr. Bezos and the two Post leaders, Mr. Shipley and Mr. Lewis, who privately made a case not to abandon the tradition so close to an election. The editorial board had already drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, though Mr. Bezos did not read it before his decision, Mr. Lewis said in a statement Saturday.

The decision by Mr. Bezos had been in the making for weeks. It is not clear what motivated his final determination or its timing.