Within the swashbuckling world of British newspapers, the editor Robert Winnett stands out for his lack of flash. Taciturn and low key, extra prone to be buried in paperwork at his desk than hobnobbing at a Mayfair membership, Mr. Winnett, the deputy editor of The Day by day Telegraph, is understood for his give attention to breaking information, as soon as incomes the nickname “Rat Boy” for his relentless drive for scoops.
Now Mr. Winnett is stepping right into a highlight that might be arduous to keep away from: This fall, he’ll grow to be the editor of The Washington Submit, taking on probably the most highly effective and scrutinized jobs in American journalism at a pivotal time within the information trade.
His ascent is because of his longstanding ties to Will Lewis, the chief government of The Submit. Mr. Lewis, a Fleet Avenue star, mentored Mr. Winnett at The Sunday Occasions of London and later at The Telegraph, the place Mr. Winnett spearheaded a groundbreaking investigation into fraudulent bills that led to the resignations of scores of British politicians.
However Mr. Winnett stays an unknown amount, each in elite American media circles and throughout the newsroom he’ll quickly lead. He’ll arrive at The Submit after 17 years at The Telegraph, a center-right paper related to Britain’s Conservative Get together. A few of his previous practices, together with the cost of a six-figure sum to acquire the paperwork essential to the bills investigation, run counter to the extra stringent reporting ethics adopted by American information organizations.
Representatives of The Submit declined to make Mr. Winnett obtainable for an interview.
However interviews on Monday with former colleagues and Fleet Avenue veterans offered a portrait of a scoop-obsessed journalist with a distaste for dinner events and a ardour for the Chelsea soccer group, whose unassuming exterior masks a dogged newshound who relishes robust tales on politicians of all stripes.
“He actually believes in holding energy to account, and believes that’s crucial job that journalism exists to do,” mentioned Rosa Prince, the deputy U.Okay. editor of Politico, who labored with Mr. Winnett at The Telegraph. “He’s a lot extra of a information individual than somebody who has notably robust political beliefs himself.”
Mr. Winnett was so desirous to work in journalism that he picked up freelance assignments throughout his breaks from school at Oxford. He was nonetheless a pupil when he joined The Sunday Occasions of London in 1995 as a private finance author.
His ambition drew the discover of the enterprise editor there, Mr. Lewis, who left for The Telegraph and later introduced Mr. Winnett together with him. Protecting Parliament, Mr. Winnett gained a popularity as “a grasp of recognizing the gem within the mud of heavy data,” as a colleague as soon as informed The Guardian.
In 2009, any person known as the Telegraph workplaces with an attractive provide. The tipster was in possession of a small pink arduous drive containing 1000’s of paperwork that exposed widespread abuse by legislators of their parliamentary expense accounts. Taxpayer cash had been used for private mortgage funds and residential upgrades like a moat.
It was an explosive story with the potential to upend the British political institution. However when the tipster met with Mr. Winnett at a London wine bar, he requested to be paid for the data, calling it a approach to shield the livelihood of his supply. The Occasions of London and The Solar had turned down this provide; The Telegraph accepted it.
“We mentioned: ‘Look, whereas The Telegraph doesn’t pay for tales on this means — we’re not a tabloid newspaper, it’s not one thing we do — however that is sensational. These folks want some insurance coverage. They may lose their careers,’” Mr. Winnett mentioned in “The Disk,” a documentary produced by The Telegraph in 2020 to mark the tenth anniversary of the investigation.
On the time, Mr. Lewis was The Telegraph’s editor in chief. In accordance with the movie, when Mr. Winnett and a colleague approached Mr. Lewis with the notion of paying for the paperwork, they thought he may be persuaded to supply 30,000 kilos. As an alternative, Mr. Lewis threw out the next quantity: £100,000. (A special Telegraph editor later described the quantity as £110,000.)
Mr. Lewis defended the cost as being within the public curiosity. “The cost factor is a pink herring,” he mentioned within the documentary. “This is without doubt one of the most essential bits of journalism, if not crucial little bit of journalism, within the postwar interval. I can’t consider a extra impactful little bit of journalism for Britain and British society, highlighting such profound wrongdoing and systematic abuse.”
Mr. Winnett coordinated each side of the investigation, which dominated British headlines for weeks, ended the careers of grandees in a number of political events and received quite a few awards. By 2014, he had been promoted to deputy editor of The Day by day Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, finally overseeing its 24-hour digital information gathering operation.
Mr. Winnett was additionally the lead byline on a Telegraph article in 2010 that concerned the usage of undercover reporters who posed as constituents of a cupboard member, Vince Cable, and surreptitiously recorded his unvarnished feedback on a pending media merger involving Rupert Murdoch. The following outcry compelled Mr. Cable to recuse himself from adjudicating the merger.
Mr. Winnett himself didn’t go undercover, and Mr. Cable mentioned on Monday that he didn’t know if Mr. Winnett had commissioned the article and knew him as a “severe political reporter.” The articles involving undercover reporters have been later rebuked by a British press regulator.
At The Submit, Mr. Winnett is slated to supervise all information protection involving politics, enterprise, tech, sports activities, options and investigations. He plans to maneuver from London to Washington. In a memo distributed in The Telegraph’s newsroom, Mr. Winnett described his departure for The Submit as “an emotional resolution.”
“He’s very a lot one hundred pc devoted to work; that’s who he’s,” mentioned Holly Watt, a London journalist who has labored carefully with Mr. Winnett. “To individuals who knew him early on, it was so evident that he could be an editor of a newspaper.”
Stephen Fortress contributed reporting. Kitty Bennett contributed analysis.
