At their best, these corporate branding exercises force companies to decide what they’re selling. And the Post is in desperate need of a clear pitch, lest it simply be seen as a cheaper, lower-quality version of The New York Times.
Lewis, a veteran of the British media and former Dow Jones CEO, has suggested a half dozen different directions for a publication that was seen before its Watergate glory days as a local Washington outlet that occasionally punched above its weight.
Lewis has suggested he’ll attempt to retake the Washington Post’s lucrative Beltway turf from outlets like Politico with new “pro” subscriptions; that he’ll go broad in search of 100 million subscribers (the outlet currently has fewer than 3 million); that he’ll do more to market the Post’s lifestyle coverage; that he’ll restore the Post’s preeminence as Washington, D.C.’s local newspaper; and that he’ll reach new audiences through a social media operation branded a “Third Newsroom.”
A brand campaign may force the Post to focus.
But in the meantime, Lewis is defending his own brand as the New York Times, NPR, and other outlets dig into his complex career in Britain, where he and his former colleague and incoming new Post editor, Rob Winnett, “acted unethically by US standards,” as NPR’s David Folkenflik put it. The New York Times reported Saturday that Lewis personally reported on phone records that the Times of London obtained by hiring a private investigator who impersonated its target to the phone company. The report ties Lewis to the practices that bloomed into a huge scandal and forced Rupert Murdoch to close his tabloid News of the World.
One question will be whether — as, in particular, with paying for the expenses material — Lewis and Winnett were pursuing true public-interest journalism by the rules as they existed in their market, or whether they were violating even looser British norms.
Perhaps most worrying for Posties are the other open lines of reporting in London about their new boss, which the dean of American media reporting, The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta, noted in a speech at an awards ceremony last week. “Lewis doesn’t get a pass,” Auletta decreed.
There’s Lewis’ work for former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which earned him a knighthood. And there’s the UK-based P.R. consulting firm he started in 2020. Lewis has cut ties with the company, a spokesperson said and public records reflect, but it still bears his name: WJL Partners.
