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Katharine Weymouth is stepping down as publisher of The Washington Post.MATT ROTH/The New York Times

The Washington Post's Katharine Weymouth plans to step down as publisher and chief executive officer a year after Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos bought the newspaper.

Weymouth, who has been with the publication for 17 years, will hand over the reigns to Fred Ryan, the founding CEO of Politico, according to a note today to colleagues at the publication. The transition will be effective on Oct. 1.

"The greatest honor of my life has been serving as publisher of the Post these past seven years, working with all of you," Weymouth said in the memo. "This is just the beginning of a wonderful new chapter for the Post."

Ryan was also chief operating officer of Politico's parent company, Allbritton Communications Co. He announced plans last year to step down from both roles to pursue other career options.

Bezos paid $250-million for the Post in October, ending eight decades of family ownership under the Grahams and its relatives, who acquired the Post in 1933. Weymouth is the niece of Don Graham, who had been chairman of the company before selling to Bezos.

"I am so grateful to Katharine for agreeing to stay on as publisher this past year," Bezos said. "She has successfully led many new initiatives and assured that the first ownership change of this great institution in 80 years has been done smoothly and without skipping a beat."

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