Washington Post chief communications officer Kathy Baird to resign

Baird announced in a memo to staff that she would be departing the company March 31.

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Washington Post chief communications officer Kathy Baird to resign

The Washington Post’s chief communications officer Kathy Baird is resigning, effective March 31.

Baird announced her move in an internal memo, seen by PRWeek, last Wednesday. The company did not comment on her replacement.

“I grew up in the DC area and The Post has always been my hometown newspaper,” Baird said. “It has been an honour to shout your accomplishments to the world using the megaphone I was provided—the most intrepid, visionary, hardworking communications team in the industry.”

Baird joined the The Washington Post in 2022 from Nike, where she served as senior director of global communications. Before that, she was group MD of Ogilvy’s Washington, DC, office.

Prior to Baird, Kristine Coratti Kelly held the publication’s top comms role, serving as the Post’s first chief communications officer, starting in 2021. She left the job the following year to join CNN Worldwide as EVP and head of global communications.

Baird joins a list of Washington Post departures in recent months, including a number of reporters who have left the paper for its competitors. Long-time columnist Ruth Marcus resigned last Monday after she said the newspaper’s management decided not to run her commentary critical of owner Jeff Bezos’ new editorial policy.

Political reporters Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer also departed for The Atlantic and, in January, White House reporter Tyler Pager joined The New York Times, while investigative politics reporter Josh Dawsey joined The Wall Street Journal.

The same month, the Post restructured its PR division amid layoffs affecting roughly 4% of its business divisions.

The cuts affected fewer than 100 people across advertising sales, marketing, communications and the print products teams, the Washington DC-based media outlet, owned by Amazon founder Bezos, said in a statement.

At the time, Baird told staff in a memo that, effective immediately, the media outlet would be repositioning its PR division to build and launch its “star talent unit,” resulting in the departure of “some” PR staff.

In September, The Post added Liza Pluto as director of communications.

The daily newspaper and digital media outlet was founded in 1877 and has been owned by Bezos since 2013 when he purchased the publication from the Graham family.

Source:

PRWeek