Washington Post C.E.O. Promised Interview for Ignoring Scandal, NPR Reporter Says

Will Lewis, the chief executive of The Washington Post, repeatedly offered an exclusive interview to an NPR reporter if the reporter agreed not to write about allegations against Mr. Lewis in a phone-hacking scandal in Britain, according to an account by that reporter published on Thursday.

David Folkenflik, a veteran media reporter for NPR, wrote that a spokesperson for Mr. Lewis confirmed the offer in December. That spokesperson declined to comment when approached again Thursday, according to NPR.

“In several conversations, Lewis repeatedly — and heatedly — offered to give me an exclusive interview about the Post’s future, as long as I dropped the story about the allegations,” Mr. Folkenflik wrote.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Lewis said that “when he was a private citizen ahead of joining The Washington Post, he had off the record conversations with an employee of NPR about a story the employee then published.” The spokeswoman said any interview requests with Mr. Lewis after he joined The Post were “processed through the normal corporate communication channels.”

In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Folkenflik said he did not violate an off-the-record agreement with Mr. Lewis to report Thursday’s article. He also said that he decided to disclose the conversation with Mr. Lewis and his spokesperson now in light of recent turmoil at The Washington Post, including the abrupt resignation of its executive editor on Sunday.

“I thought the audacity of the offer was notable,” Mr. Folkenflik said. “And given what’s playing out right now at The Post, I thought it was worth noting in public.”