NATIONAL BRIEFING / WASHINGTON, D.C.

The Washington Post’s publisher apologized to readers for a plan to charge business leaders and lobbyists for intimate dinner discussions with government officials and the newspaper’s journalists.

A marketing flier surfaced last week promoting a plan to charge $25,000 to sponsor one of a series of dinner parties that would include off-the-record conversations with Post journalists and access to Washington insiders. The series was canceled Thursday after it was disclosed by Politico.com.

“I want to apologize for a planned new venture that went off track and for any cause we may have given you to doubt our independence and integrity,” Publisher Katharine Weymouth said in the newspaper’s op-ed section. She said the flier didn’t accurately describe the Post’s plan.