NEW YORK (AP) — The Washington Post said Friday that newly named editor Robert Winnett has decided not to take the job and remain in Britain instead, another upheaval at a news outlet where a reorganization plan has gone disastrously wrong. The Post’s CEO and publisher, Will Lewis, announced Winnett’s decision to withdraw in a note to staff on Friday morning, and said a recruitment firm would be hired to launch a search for a replacement immediately. 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. 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. The New York Times wrote that both Winnett and Lewis were involved in stories that appeared to be based on fraudule.