The information enterprise is in upheaval. A presidential election is barreling down the pike. Dealing with monetary challenges and political division, a number of of America’s largest information organizations have turned over the reins to editors who prize relentless reporting on a funds.

They usually all occur to be British.

Will Lewis, a veteran of London’s Every day Telegraph and Information UK, is now the chief government of The Washington Submit, the place reporters have raised questions on his Fleet Road ethics. He just lately ousted the paper’s American editor and changed her with a former colleague from The Telegraph, dumbfounding American reporters who had by no means heard of him.

Emma Tucker (previously of The Sunday Instances) took over The Wall Road Journal final yr, shortly after Mark Thompson (previously of the BBC) turned chairman of CNN, the place he has ordered an American remake of the long-running BBC comedy quiz present “Have I Obtained Information for You.”

They joined a slew of Brits already ensconced within the American media institution. Michael Bloomberg, a famous Anglophile, employed John Micklethwait (former editor of the London-based Economist) in 2015 to run Bloomberg Information. Rupert Murdoch tapped Keith Poole (The Solar and The Every day Mail) to edit The New York Submit in 2021, the identical yr that The Related Press named an Englishwoman, Daisy Veerasingham, as its chief government.

“We’re the final word trophies for American billionaires,” joked Joanna Coles, the English-born editor who in April turned head of The Every day Beast, the web information outlet itself named after a newspaper in an Evelyn Waugh novel. Ms. Coles has not hesitated to recruit extra of her compatriots, putting in a Scot as editor in chief and a Guardian reporter as Washington bureau chief.

“We’re loading up on Brits,” she stated in an interview.

Theories abound as to the enduring attraction of British editors to American proprietors. The accent has its personal worldly attract. However hard-nosed, scrappy journalism is a cherished custom in Britain, the place broadsheets and tabloids have battled it out for many years, usually on budgets dwarfed by American rivals.

British journalists are usually decrease paid than their American counterparts, a bonus for a lot of information organizations already dealing with cutbacks. And whereas Fleet Road has a fame for fuzzy ethics, that goes hand in hand with a reader-pleasing willingness to scorch sacred cows.

“I do assume that the British press is way much less self-important, and what I name the elite press within the U.S. is way extra sententious about their place on the planet,” Tina Brown, the previous editor of Vainness Truthful, The New Yorker and The Every day Beast, stated in an interview.

She added that the erosion of the American information trade additionally meant that house owners had fewer homegrown leaders to select from.

“If you’re on the lookout for a brand new individual to run The Washington Submit, what’s commensurate by way of an establishment proper now?” Ms. Brown stated. “What’s left? So many newspapers have died that you just’re taking a look at a a lot smaller pool of people who find themselves skilled to do this explicit function.”

Ms. Brown kicked off the trans-Atlantic convoy in 1984 when Condé Nast employed her to edit Vainness Truthful. Her extremely English mixture of impertinence, acerbic prose and sophistication obsession turned the then-flailing journal into successful. She was quickly joined at Condé Nast by Anna Wintour, whose father was the longtime editor of London’s Night Commonplace.

“Individuals assume we’re cheaper and extra cutthroat,” Ms. Wintour, the editor of Vogue since 1988 and chief content material officer of Condé Nast, wrote in an electronic mail. “It’s additionally true that information is a lot part of British tradition that it’s in our blood — a bit like soccer, or humor, or Shakespeare.

“British journalists additionally are usually hardened. Information is a rough-and-tumble enterprise within the U.Okay. — has been for hundreds of years — and so when American media firms really feel they should combat to remain related, or worthwhile, it’s maybe pure that they’d look throughout the Atlantic.”

Ms. Coles agreed with that evaluation. “British individuals are usually good with fewer assets,” she stated. “The trade’s in disaster, and Brits are unflappable in crises.”

Plus, Ms. Coles added, the present malaise in American politics, and the concern that the nation’s international energy is waning, really feel outdated hat for the British.

“The tip of empire is a really acquainted situation for us, so we aren’t daunted by it,” she stated.

British editors even have a stable observe report.

Ms. Wintour and Ms. Brown had been so profitable that for a interval, British journalists ran Particulars, Nationwide Evaluation, The New Republic, Self, Condé Nast Traveler and Harper’s Bazaar. Mr. Thompson of CNN, who turned an American citizen this yr, is credited with reviving the fortunes of The New York Instances throughout his eight-year tenure as chief government.

There was the occasional misfire. In 1992, Ms. Brown lured Alexander Chancellor, the Outdated Etonian former editor of The Spectator, to The New Yorker and put him in command of its “Speak of the City” part, famed for its subtle tackle Manhattan life. Shortly after his arrival, Mr. Chancellor, who died in 2017, instructed colleagues that he had came across a tremendous story: a big Christmas tree outdoors Rockefeller Middle.

The article was quietly killed. And Mr. Chancellor was out of a job just a few months after that.

This most up-to-date crop of British imports could also be defined by the newfound shortage within the American information enterprise. Ms. Tucker and Mr. Thompson have overseen layoffs and funds cuts; Mr. Lewis has warned his workers that The Submit misplaced $77 million final yr, and its readership has fallen by half since 2020.

However whereas British journalists are used to intense competitors, their journalistic rule ebook shouldn’t be all the time in step with American requirements. At The Washington Submit, the house of Woodward and Bernstein, a few of Mr. Lewis’s habits has unsettled the newsroom.

The New York Instances reported on Wednesday that Mr. Lewis had urged The Submit’s former editor, Sally Buzbee, to not cowl a courtroom resolution regarding his involvement in Rupert Murdoch’s phone-hacking scandal in Britain. (A spokeswoman for Mr. Lewis has stated that account of the dialog was inaccurate.) An NPR reporter then disclosed that Mr. Lewis had supplied an unique interview if the reporter agreed to drop an article concerning the scandal. (The spokeswoman stated that Mr. Lewis had spoken with NPR earlier than becoming a member of The Submit, and that after he joined The Submit interview requests had been “by way of the conventional company communication channels.”)

This sort of habits could also be acceptable at some London papers, the place proprietors are much less hesitant to fiddle with protection. In American newsrooms, it’s verboten — as is the observe of paying for data. At The Telegraph, Mr. Lewis reportedly spent 110,000 pounds for paperwork that fueled a harmful exposé of parliamentary corruption. (His rivals at The Solar and The Instances of London balked at an analogous deal.) The Telegraph reporter who secured the paperwork, Robert Winnett, is ready to turn into The Submit’s editor later this yr.

As for the view throughout the pond?

“We’re all greeting this with a mixture of amusement and indignation,” stated one Fleet Road editor, who requested anonymity to keep away from the ire of any overly delicate superiors. (In line with the spirit of British tabloids, the request was granted.)

“Amusement that these fancy excessive clergymen of American journalism are being monstered by good old style, tough-guy British editors; indignation that they discover it so extraordinary that they may have one thing to be taught from throughout the pond,” the editor stated. “Sure, our requirements are a bit decrease, however we’re extraordinarily aggressive and intense and no-nonsense, and that’s in all probability useful given how the trade goes.”

Benjamin Mullin and Katie Robertson contributed reporting.