On Thursday, Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray stood before his journalists and tried to offer a rallying cry for the paper—which, as I’ve endlessly documented, has been enduring one of the bleaker chapters in its long and storied history: annual revenue losses in the hundred millions, subscriber flight, talent defections, an identity crisis, a divisive C.E.O., and an absent owner, etcetera. “The reality,” Murray said, “is that if we want The Washington Post to thrive, it isn’t enough to say that we are here just to produce high-quality journalism, or we are here just to hold power to account. We have to be here to produce high-quality journalism that people engage with.”