Rosamund Urwin

As media editor of the Sunday Times, Rosamund Urwin has shown she can carry off major investigations, bring in big scoops and also deliver highly entertaining interviews. The three pieces of work submitted reflect Urwin's range as a journalist, while also her specialism in covering the media, including holding our wider industry to account in cases where there has been historic wrong-doing.

Most notably, she led the paper’s recent investigation into allegations against the comedian and actor Russell Brand. It was the best-performing story online in the history of the paper and had almost a clean-sweep of all the other newspaper front pages the day after The Sunday Times published the story first on its website. The investigation, which was in conjunction with colleagues at The Times including Charlotte Wace and with Channel 4, was described by Jon Sopel, host of The News Agents podcast and formerly the BBC’s North America editor, as “truly brilliant reporting: assiduous, tenacious and thorough”. It dominated the public conversation for a week, sparking debates around how much has changed since the MeToo movement was ignited six years ago, institutional culpability, whether a blind eye is often turned to allegations of wrongdoing in the TV, film and radio industries, and the possibility of introducing a staged age of consent. Urwin fought incredibly hard for this story, working on it for four years, including during two periods of maternity leave; the story was published while she was on maternity leave after the birth of her second son in May 2023. It was a story that many other journalists had looked into in the past but nothing had previously come to light about the allegations. The story required great sensitivity, and challenging work around corroboration of the accounts. The accompanying podcast, on which Urwin was interviewed, was one of the most successful our Stories of our Times team has made too. Urwin was also involved in bringing on board Channel 4 in order to increase the power and reach of the story. Alongside informing readers about the most serious stories, Urwin can entertain them - including with her wide-ranging, enjoyable and funny cover interview with the actress Helena Bonham-Carter. This was an interview that Urwin brought in for The Sunday Times magazine through her contacts, and where Urwin helped place the reader in the room with Bonham-Carter. The actress's comments were widely followed by other publications. Finally, Urwin has written a series of long-reads on the BBC during her time as media editor, and her coverage of the row over impartiality sparked by Gary Lineker's tweets is reflective of the strength of her sources at the BBC and her ability to tell readers the inside story of what is happening at the corporation.