Sir Will Lewis likely to back out of Telegraph bid after joining Washington Post
British media executive Sir William Lewis is expected to withdraw his bid from the Telegraph auction as he prepares to take the reins as new chief executive of The Washington Post.
Lewis, who has held roles at The Daily Telegraph and Dow Jones, will officially lead the American daily from the start of next year.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, is hoping the media veteran can turn around the struggling broadsheet as it faces declining traffic. The paper recently said it was slashing 240 jobs as it looks at losses of $100m (£81m) this year.
Former Telegraph editor Lewis had secured funding to potentially reacquire the publication, which he planned to revitalise digitally.
But due to the challenges presented by his new role, he is likely to withdraw from the Telegraph auction, according to sources close to The Telegraph.
The auction for The Telegraph and the Spectator magazine kicked off in October and is expected to last until early next year.
Other high-profile media actors who could snap up the right-leaning publications include media mogul Rupert Murdoch, British media company Daily Mail General Trust (DMGT) and German publisher Axel Springer.
Lewis succeeds interim boss Patty Stonesifer, following the departure of long-time chief executive Fred Ryan.
Alongside his top media positions, Lewis co-founded which aims to provide reliable information to young people on popular social media sites which are often plagued with ‘fake news’.
Jeff Bezos described Lewis as an “exceptional, tenacious industry executive”.
City PM attempted to contact Lewis for confirmation of his intentions.