Washington Post publisher Sir Will Lewis faces a PR crisis, with his own newspaper and rivals investigating his past as a senior executive in Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
It’s the kind of problem Lewis was trying to solve for clients at his communications and consulting firm WJL Partners, named after his initials, until recently.
Founded in 2020, WJLP has hosted dinners and other events for high-powered industry executives, investors such as Sequoia Capital and politicians, and also provides services such as preparing clients for interviews for the media.
On its website, WJLP says it sits “alongside leaders who want a safe space, wise counsel and someone on the end of the phone.”
The firm continued to operate even after Lewis was hired to run The Washington Post late last year by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who won the title in 2013.
In January, she invited contacts to an event at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, two weeks after Lewis took up his new position at the paper, with Lewis and the chief executive of Drax, the British energy company.
“The dinner will be an intimate gathering bringing together a select group of distinguished guests from business, media and politics to discuss the role climate change will play in the 2024 election,” the invitation promised.
According to a person close to the executive, Lewis no longer has any commercial interest or involvement in WJLP, having turned over ownership to his business partners.
In addition to keeping his initials, the PR firm continued to distribute regular emails from Lewis offering his thoughts on global business and political events.
The emails and unchanged branding caused confusion among people in contact with the agency, according to industry sources.
The firm is not charging for distribution of Lewis’ newsletter, which makes clear that Lewis is the CEO and publisher of The Washington Post, according to a person close to the situation.
According to a filing at Britain’s Companies House, Lewis relinquished his controlling interest in the business to Victoria Davies, the company’s director, at the end of last year after Lewis was appointed by Bezos.
Davies now holds between 50-75 percent of the business, according to the filing, which would match the stake held by Lewis. Lewis declined to comment.
The firm said: “WJLP is a high-level consultancy firm based in London. William Lewis has no financial interest in WJLP as of December 29, 2023, and WJLP has no contractual relationship with The Washington Post.
In addition to corporate clients, Lewis also provided communications advice to former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson following the 2022 “Partygate” crisis – the so-called “Save the Big Dog” operation that ultimately failed to defend Johnson’s government against accusations of contempt for Covid. -19 rules during a pandemic.
Lord Ross Kempsell, Johnson’s former spokesman who was appointed to the House of Lords by the then prime minister, acts as a senior adviser to WJLP but is not involved in its day-to-day operations.
One person who attended some of the meetings, including dinner with Lewis, described him as a consummate networker: “He’s an extraordinary convenor of people. [and] he had a great way of helping[companies]. . . he was very clever with his advice and helpful with introductions.’
Lewis is a former Financial Times journalist and Telegraph editor who served as chief executive of Murdoch-owned Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal from 2014 to 2020.
However, his career in journalism and communications came under scrutiny after he was named publisher of The Washington Post in November 2023.
Lewis was appointed by Bezos to stem mounting losses and declining readership, but angered journalists in the newsroom after he replaced executive editor Sally Buzbee with former colleagues from the WSJ and the Telegraph.
Following her departure and the announcement of his plans to overhaul the newsroom, the US media extensively covered his links to an alleged cover-up of the phone-hacking scandal that rocked Murdoch’s UK news operation more than a decade ago.
He is one of the former and current News Corp employees named in the legal proceedings launched by Prince Harry over allegations of phone hacking against Murdoch publications. Lewis has always denied any wrongdoing.
US media also claimed that he tried to prevent The Washington Post and other US media from reporting negatively on his past, which his spokesman denied.
Bezos sent a memo to the newspaper’s top editors this week that was widely seen as endorsing Lewis’s position, arguing that “the world is moving fast and we have to change as a business” but that high editorial standards would remain unchanged.
The basis of Lewis’ turnaround plan at The Washington Post, where he wants to create a “third newsroom” that focuses on digital and social media, also reflects his digital publishing record in the UK.
As its editor-in-chief in 2009, he launched a digital transformation of the Daily Telegraph called the Euston Project, which aimed to create an online product. He recently founded The News Movement, an online news site aimed at a younger audience.
More news from Arash Massoudi in London