The elevation of Will Lewis, a north London comprehensive boy, to become publisher and CEO of the Washington Post — in the footsteps of the late, great Kay Graham of Watergate fame — has caused a stir in the American capital. As soon as the news dropped last Saturday, the politicos of DC were seeking insights into the Brit taking on their “hometown newspaper” with its sacred tagline of “Democracy Dies in Darkness”.
Of particular concern to Democrats keying up for next year’s presidential election is Lewis’s past as the former golden boy of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, owner of once Trump-loving Fox News and driving force of conservative politics on both sides of the Atlantic. Lewis was also knighted this year by Boris Johnson in his controversial resignation honours list — although he does not style himself as Sir Will — after giving the former prime minister informal advice before he was ousted in disgrace. So why did the Post’s owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, hire Lewis over several better known American names to revive the flagging fortunes of a liberal media icon?
Lewis, 54, is an unshowy figure who generally recoils from talking about himself or his own politics. He remains something of an enigma even to those he serves — Johnson wrongly believed him to be, for instance, a Brexiteer.
When pushed by the Evening Standard for the secret to his rise from a stint on Bristol University’s student newspaper back in the late Eighties to arguably the most prestigious media position in the world, Lewis attributes his success to a “fear of being found out and getting up every day at five”. He is also, he admits, “hugely competitive… I’m here to win, not lose”.
Winning will not be easy. The Post admits to “a softening ad market” and a “shrinking and distracted audience”. The paper is expected to lose up to $100 million this year and to shed around a tenth of its staff. Some fear the glory of its coverage of the Pentagon Papers, Watergate and more recently the Trump administration, would be hard to replicate in such straitened times. Lewis thus has the challenge of revving up great journalism in an industry where the dollars are drying up. Employing a phrase beloved of his new boss Bezos, he nevertheless insists that “we’re going to get our swagger back”.
The outgoing interim CEO Paty Stonesifer helped choose Lewis from more than two dozen candidates because he understood that “great journalism needs great business”. Bezos was also drawn to Lewis’s “passion for driving financial success” but his new CEO wants more time “under the hood” before he reveals detailed plans for a return to financial health. They will, however, involve attempts to bring in elusive younger audiences using the experience he gleaned from co-founding News Movement, which provides news to youthful audiences on TikTok and YouTube. Artificial intelligence will play a part too, but he insists as a “co-pilot not a replacement” for journalists, as will more bespoke offerings for news subscribers. “I don’t like having all our eggs in one basket,” Lewis told his new paper “so if advertising dips, it’s not panic stations.”
Success for Lewis first came as a Financial Times reporter in New York in 1998 with a scoop on Exxon’s merger with Mobil, then the largest in corporate history. He returned to London as business editor on the Murdoch-owned Sunday Times before being poached to edit the Daily Telegraph where a decade later he had the courage and vision to break the MPs’ expenses scandal.
Lewis has the challenge of revving up great journalism in an industry where the dollars are drying up
Public perception of British politics changed almost overnight but the political reform that Lewis had hoped would follow never really materialised. It nevertheless established him in some minds as the “journalist’s journalist” — a status enhanced by his habit of sending personal notes of congratulations to reporters.
Afterwards, he returned to the Murdoch fold as general manager of UK newspapers and found himself at the sharp end of the phone hacking scandal. His role during the investigations earned the enmity of some journalists who believed he sold them out (there were rumours he employed extra security to protect himself) but also the gratitude of a Murdoch eager to clear up the mess. “I did whatever I could to preserve journalistic integrity,” Lewis insists.
At 45, Lewis was promoted to CEO of the conservative-leaning Wall Street Journal where he drove a huge expansion of digital subscriptions but also coverage that imploded one of Murdoch’s own investments — an episode Lewis highlights as proof of his belief in editorial independence. He left apparently amicably in 2020 when his commute to New York — involving catching the first plane out on Monday from Heathrow and returning overnight on Fridays — took too great a toll on family life and his health. This time, after he officially takes up the job on January 2, his wife Rebecca will give up her post as deputy headteacher of Highgate Primary School to move into their new rented house in Washington. Their eldest daughter is already in DC, where she works for a Democrat senator.
Lewis had been hoping to take over his old paper the Telegraph before the call came from DC, but abandoned his bid. “The Washington Post is the thing,” he explains. He joins a wave of Brits taking on pillars of the American media including Mark Thompson (formerly director general of the BBC) at CNN and Emma Tucker (ex-editor of the Sunday Times) as editor-in-chief at the Wall Street Journal.
Sonia Purnell is a journalist and author
