The BBC has drawn up a shortlist in the hunt for its next director general that includes Will Lewis, the outgoing chief executive of the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, and two of the corporation’s most senior executives, Tim Davie and Charlotte Moore. The final contender is thought to be another woman. The corporation’s board is understood to have informed the candidates and is planning to hold interviews in early June. The successful applicant will take over from Tony Hall when he stands down later this year. The BBC is known to have approached Alex Mahon, the chief executive of Channel 4, and held a conversation about the role in recent weeks, but she is understood to have declined to put her name in the hat. Davie continues to be seen as the frontrunner for the role, among the biggest jobs in British broadcasting. A former Procter & Gamble and Pepsi marketer, Davie previously ran the BBC’s audio and music operation and acted as director general during the Savile crisis, before Lord Hall was appointed. He is currently the chief executive of BBC Studios, one of the broadcaster’s commercial arms. His colleague Moore, who works on the licence fee-funded side of the corporation, is the BBC’s director of content with a £1bn budget responsible for hit shows including Bake Off, Bodyguard and Luther. BBC insiders keen to see the role kept in-house say an elegant solution to potentially keep Davie and Moore could be to split Hall’s dual roles as director general and editor-in-chief. The wild card is Lewis, who finished a six-year stint at Dow Jones on Friday and who one source described as the “maverick option”. The 51-year-old has an extensive background in journalism, having worked at the Financial Times, Sunday Times and Daily Telegraph, where he became the youngest editor-in-chief and oversaw the newspaper’s investigation into MPs’ expenses. It is understood that the whittled-down list of candidates until very recently included a senior executive at Amazon UK, as the corporation sought to canvas the widest range of potential contenders to lead BBC through its crucial next phase. The recruitment process is being led by David Clementi, the chair of the BBC board, who comes to the end of his four-year tenure early next year. The BBC declined to comment on the recruitment process. Whoever lands the role of director general will face challenges from all sides. The BBC is facing a mid-term review of its charter in 2022, which will focus on the cost and long-term future of the licence fee. Boris Johnson, who has had a combative relationship with the BBC since last year’s general election campaign, has talked about decriminalising non-payment of the annual £157.50 licence fee. The corporation has said such a move will cost it hundreds of millions of pounds. While the corporation is widely viewed as having proved its worth as part of British life during the coronavirus crisis, it remains highly probable that by the time of charter renewal in 2027, the broadcaster will be funded by an alternative mechanism. The BBC is also facing another round of cuts after revealing that its income will fall by £125m this year due to the coronavirus crisis. TV licence fee income will be down as door-to-door enforcement activity stops during the pandemic. The BBC has also been hit by the decision to delay the introduction of the licence fee for most over-75s, which had been due to come into effect this year but was deferred when older people were asked to self-isolate.