Washington Post publisher Will Lewis spikes newsletter after sponsor break

Washington Post publisher Sir Will Lewis has suspended his newsletter for former clients and contacts after sponsor AlixPartners asked to “pause” its involvement amid a newsroom revolt at the US broadsheet.

New York-headquartered Alix has agreed to halt the weekly email with WJL Partners, the consultancy firm that Lewis controlled until the end of last year, according to two people familiar with the situation.

The move follows intense scrutiny of Lewis’s business interests and his earlier career as a senior executive at Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. The “What to Read” newsletter has been a means of regular correspondence between Lewis and clients of his former PR and consultancy business.

Lewis has continued sending emails through WJLP — the firm that bears his initials — even after taking over as publisher of the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post at the beginning of this year, causing confusion among former clients over the extent of his business interests outside the newspaper.

WJLP and Alix declined to comment. Lewis was not available for comment.

WJLP was already considering a pause before Alix asked for a suspension of the newsletter — sent out “in association” with the sponsor — according to one person with knowledge of the situation. It was not clear if or when the emails would start again, the person added.

Lewis has passed ownership of WJLP to his former partners, and retains no financial interest, but the group has continued sending out the emails and organised a dinner that involved Lewis at Davos this year. 

The last newsletter, sent out for the week ending June 14, made jokes about Lewis’s mother’s new cat and provided links to a range of news stories. The newsletter clearly states that Lewis is chief executive and publisher of the Washington Post. WJLP does not charge Lewis a fee for this service. 

A spokesperson for WJLP said last week: “William Lewis has had no financial interest in WJLP since 29th December 2023 and WJLP has no contractual relationship with the Washington Post.”

Lewis was appointed boss of The Washington Post last year, but his attempts to turn around the lossmaking newspaper have led to a newsroom crisis and weeks of inquiry — including by The Washington Post itself — over whether he was involved in an alleged cover-up of phone hacking by the News of the World more than a decade ago. Lewis also once worked as a journalist at the Financial Times.

Lewis is named as one of many executives in ongoing court action against News UK, which owned the News of the World, by Prince Harry. Lewis has denied any wrongdoing. 

He has also upset staff at the US broadsheet by bringing in former employees, including Eleanor Breen as his chief of staff, at the Post. Breen worked at Lewis’s news media start-up, The News Movement, which has had talks over potential commercial tie-ups with The Washington Post. 

Lewis’s choice for the next editor, Robert Winnett, last week decided to stay in the UK as deputy editor of The Telegraph. His withdrawal from the role followed scrutiny of his journalism by US media outlets.

Media commentators in the US are openly asking whether Lewis can remain publisher of The Washington Post.

“Bezos is willing to be patient and give them a runway to get back, to break even or try some new things [ . . . ] he doesn’t sway easily based on public opinion,” said a former senior Post executive. “He’s going to care more about: can Will deliver? Can he make some innovations that will bump up subscriptions?” 

This week, The New York Times published allegations suggesting Lewis obstructed the investigation of the phone hacking scandal. He told The New York Times the allegations were untrue.

News UK has paid out about £1bn in settlements and legal costs since the scandal broke more than a decade ago. The group has admitted that phone hacking to procure stories took place at News of the World — leading to the newspaper’s closure, a public inquiry and a police investigation — but not at The Sun.

Additional reporting by Anna Nicolaou in New York