Post cutbacks include ombudsman

Patrick Pexton

As he feared, Patrick Pexton is the last ombudsman that the Washington Post will hire. He has been replaced by a “reader representative” who is employed the Post. The ombudsman, though paid by the Post, was independent and not a Post employee and wrote a regular column about interactions with readers.

To read Pexton’s column accurately predicting that he would be the last dinosaur of Post ombudsmen, click on http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/patrick-pexton-is-the-post-getting-rid-of-the-ombudsman/2013/02/15/fff68282-778f-11e2-8f84-3e4b513b1a13_story.html

Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth blames it on a changing world. The independent Post ombudsman, while not a Post employee, was paid at the level of a senior editor. The reader representative, a company employee, will not be.

To read the Post explanation, click on http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/205927/weymouth-washington-post-will-appoint-a-reader-representative/