British journalist backs out of taking top Washington Post job amid ethics concerns

There's more turbulence in the top rungs of one of the nation’s leading media outlets. The Washington Post is again looking for a top editor after Robert Winnett, the British journalist set to take the position, withdrew.

It comes after a year marked by staff cuts, a high-profile resignation and mounting red ink. Lisa Desjardins discussed more with former Post columnist Margaret Sullivan.

He'd been the subject of several published reports — including one in the newsroom that he sought to lead — that questioned whether he followed an ethical compass foreign to American journalists. The Post's CEO and publisher, Will Lewis, announced Winnett's decision in a note to staff, and said a recruitment firm would be immediately hired to search for a replacement.

The financially struggling Post had announced Winnett would take over as editor of the core newsroom functions after November's presidential election, while it was also setting up a “third newsroom” devoted to finding new ways for its journalism to make money.

Three weeks ago, then-executive editor Sally Buzbee said that she would quit rather than take a demotion to head this revenue-enhancement effort. Besides Winnett's hiring, former Wall Street Journal editor Matt Murray was brought on as her interim replacement and future leader of the “third newsroom.”

Since then, several published reports had raised questions about the journalistic ethics of Lewis and Winnett stemming from their work in England. For example, both men worked together in a series of scoops about extravagant spending by British politicians fueled by information that they paid a data information company for — a practice frowned upon by American journalists.