Robert Winnett is not going to be becoming a member of The Washington Post as editor this fall, amid the fallout following a workers revolt over CEO Will Lewis‘ abrupt change in newsroom management and reviews which have raised moral considerations over his and Winnett’s earlier journalism practices within the UK.
Winnett, deputy editor of The Telegraph Media Group, has determined to remain in London. Chris Evans, the editor of the Telegraph, wrote in a memo to staffers, per the Submit, “I’m happy to report that Rob Winnett has determined to stick with us. As you all know, he’s a proficient chap and their loss is our achieve.”
In a memo obtained by Deadline, Lewis wrote to staffers, “It’s with remorse that I share with you that Robert Winnett has withdrawn from the place of Editor at The Washington Submit. Rob has my biggest respect and is an extremely proficient editor and journalist. The management at The Telegraph Media Group are reaffirming his continued function as deputy editor.”
Lewis wrote that they “will instantly launch a brand new seek for Editor of our core protection,” and that the Submit would retain a recruiting agency and use a course of “to make sure a well timed however thorough seek for this necessary management function.”
Winnett was to have turn out to be editor as a part of a restructured management plan laid out earlier this month by Lewis. Sally Buzbee, the chief editor, departed, and Winnett was to have overseen protection areas together with politics, investigations, enterprise, know-how, sports activities and options, whereas Matt Murray, the previous editor in chief of The Wall Avenue Journal, was to supervise a brand new division dubbed the “third newsroom,” devoted to profitable over new readers with new sorts of content material.
However the shakeup rapidly bumped into controversy among the many newsroom workers, who questioned Lewis on the departure of Buzbee; how Winnett, certainly one of his former colleagues, was chosen; and the path of the publication. Then there have been reviews that triggered additional considerations over previous editorial practices by Winnett and Lewis earlier of their careers within the UK.
The Submit itself reported earlier this week on Winnett’s profession within the UK, together with his interactions with a suspect arrested in 2010 alleged to have tried to steal an unreleased copy of former British prime minister Tony Blair’s memoir. The suspect, John Ford, was a educated actor who had admitted to utilizing misleading means to realize data.
Lewis was a mentor to Winnett, and the Submit CEO himself has confronted questions on his involvement within the acquiring of hacked telephone data. The New York Occasions reported that when Lewis was an editor on the Sunday Occasions twenty years in the past, he assigned a narrative that relied on the hacked data.
The Submit has retained former senior managing editor Cameron Barr to supervise the protection associated to Lewis. Winnett and Lewis haven’t commented on the small print raised within the Submit and Occasions items.
Earlier this week, David Maraniss, the famed biographer and Submit veteran, wrote on Fb, “I don’t know a single individual on the Submit who thinks the present state of affairs with the writer and supposed new editor can stand.”
Jeff Bezos, the proprietor of the Submit, issued a press release to staffers, writing that “the journalistic requirements and ethics at The Submit is not going to change. To make sure, it could actually’t be enterprise as common on the Submit. The world is evolving quickly and we do want to vary as a enterprise.”
Lewis has implored staffers of the necessity for drastic change, revealing that the Submit misplaced $77 million final 12 months and has skilled a dramatic decline in on-line visitors.
Lewis wrote immediately that Murray would proceed within the function of government editor by the elections “and likewise carry ahead planning the main the third newsroom.” Lewis wrote that the Submit would proceed to pursue that plan with full implementation within the first quarter of 2025.
