It’s hard to think of anything that has gone right for Will Lewis as he hit his six-month anniversary atop the Washington Post this week.
His top editor (Sally Buzbee) left soon after his arrival, and his pick to replace her (Robert Winnett) backed out of the job before he even started amid reporting on his questionable ethics.
Lewis’ newsroom has dedicated an entire team of reporters to look into his own morally dubious behavior as an editor and media executive in the U.K. as other major U.S. news outlets compete for the same scoops.
The results so far have produced a steady stream of embarrassing stories, all of which raise serious questions about Lewis’ ethics.
Lewis has refused to answer specific questions about his efforts to kill or obscure stories that are critical of him, and his haughtiness has cost him valuable credibility in an industry and a newsroom where accountability and transparency are essential.
Just last week, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused Lewis of a “cover-up” in a London phone-hacking scandal while Lewis was an executive at Rubert Murdoch’s media company. Brown called for London’s Metropolitan Police to open an investigation into “the destruction of millions of emails vital to the criminal investigation into phone hacking.”
As readers, reporters, and others wonder just how much longer Lewis can continue taking hits that would have cost most any other journalist their job, he now must recruit an editor who can unite the newsroom in spite of him and who aligns with his vision for the paper’s future.
That’s a tall order. Maybe he could use some suggestions:
> Kelly McBride is NPR’s public editor and the senior vice president and chair of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership at the Poynter Institute. If ever there was a need for an ethicist at the Post, it’s now.
> Wesley Lowery is a star former reporter at the Post who made a name for himself reporting on one of the most important civil rights stories of this generation: police brutality and the high-profile deaths of Black men at the hands of law enforcement. His list of accolades includes a Pulitzer Prize and George Polk Award, among many others. He has reportedly clashed with his bosses at the Post but is not shy about sharing his criticisms of mainstream media and could offer a fresh perspective. Plus, he’s local. Lowery now leads American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop.
> Nikole Hannah-Jones is the brain behind the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project and a staff writer for the New York Times Magazine. She founded the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, dedicated to training journalists of color and keeping them in the industry. She lives in New York, but she also teaches journalism at Howard University. Although she tells City Paper she has no interest in the top job at the Post, one can dream.
> Krissah Thompson is a managing editor at the Post and might be a leading candidate to lead Lewis’ “third newsroom” focused on social media and service journalism. But why not consider her for the top job? The Texas-born journalist came to the Post in 2001. An internal hire could mend some of the damage Lewis inflicted on newsroom sensibilities by initially hiring four White men to run the paper. Thompson could not be reached for comment.
> Mike Semel has been at the Post since 2000 and spent all of his time on local coverage. He’s forgotten more about the area than most of the Metro staff will ever know, and his elevation could signal a commitment to strengthening coverage of D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Semel declined to talk about the possibility.
> Kevin Merida, a former Los Angeles Times editor who spent two decades at the Post, is another name that continues to pop up in discussions about the paper’s next leader. Merida was also a senior VP at ESPN and editor-in-chief of The Undefeated, a website that covered race, sports, and culture. But I’m told that bruised egos, his love of California weather, and time have combined to make his return to the District a remote possibility. Still, he remains enormously popular with Post reporters.
> Sewell Chan is a former Post reporter who currently runs the newsroom of the highly regarded Texas Tribune. In September, he is set to become executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review. He would bring decades of experience as a newsroom leader, and “possesses a deep well of experience, incredible insights into the challenges confronting media at this moment, and an abiding passion for journalism,” says Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia Journalism School.
> Tracy Grant is a well-regarded editor who might have been a good candidate to replace Marty Baron. She left the Post a few years ago and started a new career as editor-in-chief of Britannica. Grant and Baron declined to talk with City Paper.
> Steven Ginsberg left the Post to work at the Athletic, though many Post staffers say they miss him. He held a number of jobs at the Post, including national editor, senior politics editor, and local politics editor; he’s also edited several projects awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He could easily step into the role, but it’s unclear if he wants the hassle of leaving his new job atop the sports world. He could not be reached for comment.
> Andrea Valdez is a managing editor of The Atlantic and co-founder of The 9th News. She previously edited the Texas Observer, WIRED, and Texas Monthly.
> Bill Keller was the founding editor-in-chief of the Marshall Project, a nonprofit that publishes hard-hitting journalism on criminal justice in the U.S. Before that, he wrote for the New York Times and served as the paper’s executive editor from 2003 until 2011.
> Pamela Colloff is a reporter for ProPublica and a staff writer for the New York Times Magazine who publishes deep, impactful work. Her articles have also appeared in The New Yorker and Texas Monthly. She could not be reached for comment.
The mess surrounding Lewis is likely to keep plenty of credible candidates away.
David Maraniss, an author and longtime Post writer and editor, criticized Lewis recently on Facebook, writing: “I don’t know a single person at the Post who thinks the current situation with the publisher and supposed new editor can stand.” Maraniss declined to elaborate but affirms that he stands by his statement.
As Lewis continues to search for a new executive editor and figure out how to successfully restructure the newsroom, he has to contend with regular stories questioning his alleged role in covering up a phone-hacking scandal while working for Murdoch.
This past Saturday, June 27, the Post offered another front-page installment in the coverage. The story, carrying seven bylines, is a detailed look at the role Lewis played in ordering the destruction of email evidence during the hacking scandal.
Lewis recently told the Post that he “did nothing wrong,” adding “these allegations are untrue.” But he declines to answer specific questions. Lewis has not responded to a request for comment.
Post editors have tapped former editor Cameron Barr to oversee the paper’s coverage of Lewis. Barr did not respond to questions, but Post staffers say that he’s managing that coverage from the United Kingdom. His team includes Elahe Izadi, Sarah Ellison, Jon Swaine, Craig Whitlock, Jonathan O’Connell, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Greg Miller, Aaron Davis, and Jeremy Barr.
The New York Times has also dispatched reporters to London to dig into Lewis and his role in the phone-hacking scandal. And two former Post greats, Jo Becker and Julie Tate, are among the muckrakers assigned to the job. The latter’s investigative skills were reportedly the envy of even the CIA.
As the search for a newsroom leader continues, Lewis recently announced that his big plan to redesign the paper’s structure to better reflect the areas he wants it to focus on has been postponed. The so-called “Build It” stage was supposed to kick off the first week of July and be operational by fall, Lewis said.
“We will continue our Build It efforts on the third newsroom with the timeline for full implementation in Q1 2025,” Lewis wrote to his staff recently.
Despite Lewis’ rocky start and shaky future, one bright spot for him is his purchase of a $7.2 million Georgetown estate.
Property records indicate that the District government agreed to merge three lots together to form the property, which features two large lawns perfect for cocktail parties, badminton courts, or croquet, not to mention a screening room and two garages with space for three cars. Lewis’ wife and their four children are reportedly arriving in D.C. this summer.
The British International School of Washington is about a 10-minute walk from Lewis’ new home. Unless his luck begins to change, Lewis may have a lot more time to walk his kids to school.