William Lewis is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
journalistA journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
who is a member of
News CorporationNews Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
's Management and Standards Committee. It is responsible for helping the police and other bodies find out the facts about the News of the World phone hacking scandal. The MSC is also charged with implementing new rules for journalists at News International. The MSC is chaired by Lord Grabiner and reports to
Joel KleinJoel Irwin Klein was Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, the largest public school system in the United States, serving more than 1.1 million students in more than 1,600 schools...
, a member of the News Corp board.
Until being appointed to the MSC in July 2011, Lewis was group General Manager at
News InternationalNews International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....
in the UK, a post he held from September 2010. Before that he was editor-in-chief of the
Telegraph Media GroupThe Telegraph Media Group is the proprietor of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph. It is a subsidiary of Press Holdings. David and Frederick Barclay acquired the group in July 2004, after months of intense bidding and lawsuits, from Hollinger Inc...
, which publishes the
Daily Telegraph,
Sunday TelegraphThe Sunday Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961. It is the sister paper of The Daily Telegraph, but is run separately with a different editorial staff, although there is some cross-usage of stories...
and telegraph.co.uk in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, from 2006 until May 2010. In September 2010 he joined News International, part of
News CorporationNews Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
and owner of
The Sun, News of the World, The Times and
Sunday Times.
As
Telegraph editor and editor-in-chief, he oversaw the
Telegraph's investigation into the
parliamentary expenses scandalThe United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal was a major political scandal triggered by the leak and subsequent publication by the Telegraph Group in 2009 of expense claims made by members of the United Kingdom Parliament over several years...
in May 2009. The expenses investigations stories saw
The Daily Telegraph honoured at the
British Press AwardsThe British Press Awards is an annual ceremony that celebrates the best of British journalism. Established in the 1970s, honours are voted on by a panel of journalists and newspaper executives...
as "Newspaper of the Year", with Lewis being named as "Journalist of the Year".
Background
He attended a comprehensive school in London, Whitefield School, before studying Politics and Economics at the
University of BristolThe University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...
, where he wrote for the student newspaper,
EpigramEpigram is the independent student newspaper of the University of Bristol. It was established in 1988 by James Landale, now a senior BBC journalist, who studied politics at Bristol...
. He completed a postgraduate diploma in Periodical Journalism at City University.
Career
After graduation, he joined the
Mail on Sunday as a business reporter in 1991. He later moved to the
Financial TimesThe Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
, working there for eight years. His last job at the
FT was news editor, having been the Mergers and Acquisitions Editor based in New York. In 1999 he broke the story that Exxon was merging with Mobil, then the biggest industrial merger.
Lewis was business editor of
The Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
from 2002 to 2005.
Telegraph Media Group
Lewis joined the
Daily Telegraph in 2005, as City editor and joint deputy editor. Lewis was appointed editor of the
Daily Telegraph on 9 October 2006, becoming the youngest ever editor of the newspaper. Within a year of his appointment he was made editor-in-chief of the combined titles after working to integrate the publishing process across the group.
As editor and editor-in-chief, he oversaw the
Telegraph's investigation into the
parliamentary expenses scandalThe United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal was a major political scandal triggered by the leak and subsequent publication by the Telegraph Group in 2009 of expense claims made by members of the United Kingdom Parliament over several years...
in May 2009. The expenses investigations stories saw
The Daily Telegraph honoured at the
British Press AwardsThe British Press Awards is an annual ceremony that celebrates the best of British journalism. Established in the 1970s, honours are voted on by a panel of journalists and newspaper executives...
as "Newspaper of the Year", with Lewis being named "Journalist of the Year".
During his time as editor, he also tried to encourage a broader debate at the
Telegraph about the environment. The newspapers and website continued to house traditional global warming sceptics such as
Christopher BookerChristopher John Penrice Booker is an English journalist and author. In 1961, he was one of the founders of the magazine Private Eye, and has contributed to it for over four decades. He has been a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph since 1990...
and
James DelingpoleJames Delingpole is an English columnist and novelist. A self-described libertarian conservative, he writes for The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and The Spectator. He has published several novels and four political books, most recently Watermelons: The Green Movement's True Colors [2011]...
.
But he also recruited Geoffrey Lean, the respected environmental commentator to write a weekly column and lead the Telegraph's global warming coverage.
He was succeeded in the editor's chair by
Tony GallagherTony Gallagher is a British newspaper editor.-Career:Gallagher attended Finchley Catholic High School and Bristol University and then City University London before becoming a journalist at the Southern Evening Echo in Southampton and then South West News press agency back in Bristol...
in late 2009 but remained editor-in-chief and was promoted to manage the Telegraph Media Group's digital businesses, heading up the short-lived Euston Partners, a new entrepreneurial digital division. He left the
Telegraph Media GroupThe Telegraph Media Group is the proprietor of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph. It is a subsidiary of Press Holdings. David and Frederick Barclay acquired the group in July 2004, after months of intense bidding and lawsuits, from Hollinger Inc...
in May 2010, after a "disagreement" with chief executive
Murdoch MacLennanMurdoch MacLennan, 62, is chief executive of Telegraph Media Group in the UK, having previously been managing director of Associated Newspapers for ten years until 2004....
about the strategic direction of Euston Partners.
News International
In July 2010, he was appointed general manager for
News InternationalNews International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....
's stable of UK newspapers -
The SunThe Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
,
The TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
,
News of the WorldThe News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
and
The Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
.
Vince Cable leak
In December 2010, Daily Telegraph reporters secretly recorded the UK Business Secretary Vince Cable making a number of unguarded and controversial remarks about the UK government and also his view that "we have declared war on
MurdochKeith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
". The Telegraph reported the remarks about government but did not publish his views on Murdoch. These views were controversial because Cable was overseeing the bid by Murdoch's News Corporation for all of BSkyB. The remarks about Murdoch were leaked to the BBC's Business Editor,
Robert PestonRobert Peston is a British journalist. Since February 2006, he has been the Business Editor for BBC News. He became known to a wider public with his reporting of the late-2000s financial crisis, especially with his scoop on the Northern Rock crisis.-Early life and education:Peston is the son of...
. He broadcast them to the consternation of the Telegraph and of Cable who was forced to step aside from his oversight of the BSkyB bid. In July 2011
ReutersReuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
reported that the corporate investigations firm
KrollKroll is a risk consultancy firm based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. and established in 1972.- History:Kroll was founded in 1972 by Jules B. Kroll as a consultant to corporate purchasing departments...
had 'strong reasons' to suspect that Lewis had been involved in the leak to Peston. The leaks took place three months after Lewis left the
Telegraph. They were seen to be of commercial benefit to
News CorporationNews Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
, the parent company of News International, in relation to the
News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyBThe News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB was a proposed takeover of British Sky Broadcasting by News Corporation, the media conglomerate of Rupert Murdoch. The bid was launched in June 2010, but was withdrawn in July 2011 following the News International phone hacking scandal...
. Kroll interviewed several Telegraph journalists, and examined their email and phone records, but was unable to determine which disgruntled journalists decided to blow the whistle on the Telegraph's decision not to publish the Cable comments on Murdoch.
Awards
At the 2010
British Press AwardsThe British Press Awards is an annual ceremony that celebrates the best of British journalism. Established in the 1970s, honours are voted on by a panel of journalists and newspaper executives...
The Telegraph was named the "National Newspaper of the Year" for its coverage of the MPs expenses scandal (named "Scoop of the Year"), with Lewis winning "Journalist of the Year" for his role.
Personal life
Lewis is married with three children; he met his wife as an undergraduate at the University of Bristol.
His brother
Simon LewisSimon Lewis is the chief executive of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe. He was formerly Director of Communications for the former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He previously held this position for the Queen, Vodafone, and Centrica...
was the former Prime Minister
Gordon BrownJames Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
's Director of Communication, and is now chief executive of the Association of Financial Markets Europe.
In July 2010 he was awarded with the degree of Doctor of Laws from Bristol University.
In September 2010 he was awarded with the degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Lincoln.