We are delighted to announce that Peter Wallsten will shape the next chapter of the investigative unit as its new editor, carrying forward the department’s legacy through his unyielding commitment to exceptional journalism in the public interest.
Peter brings to this position a deep belief in the power of investigative journalism and a dedication to the excellence required to execute this work at the highest level. He has held numerous positions during his 14 years at The Post, but in all of them, he has demonstrated the qualities that will make him a superb leader of the investigative department: he pushes for revelations that will have the greatest impact, questions assumptions and mandates the highest level of rigor, fairness and depth. He has a voracious curiosity and a remarkable instinct for targets worth plumbing. Peter is also an empathetic, collaborative leader who cares deeply about championing his staff and helping them do their best work.
As an editor in National for the past decade, Peter has overseen some of our most consequential work, leading or helping oversee four Pulitzer Prize-winning lines of coverage. Most recently, he shepherded Caroline Kitchener’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting on the fall of Roe v. Wade and led the “American Icon” series examining the rise of the AR-15, which has drawn notice for its use of innovative visual storytelling to show the damage wrought when the weapon is fired at people.
He has held numerous top editor roles, including senior national enterprise editor, senior national investigations editor and senior politics editor. In 2013, he created the Political Investigations and Enterprise team, which rapidly made a mark by landing high-impact stories close to the news. In that role, he edited Carol Leonnig’s Pulitzer Prize-winning examination of security failures by the Secret Service.
Peter arrived at The Post in 2010, first working as a White House correspondent and then as a political enterprise writer. Before joining The Post, he covered national politics for the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. He previously covered Florida politics and government for the then-St. Petersburg Times and the Miami Herald. As someone who has shared his experience with Stargardt’s Disease, a degenerative retinal condition that has taken much of his eyesight, Peter has been a source of advice and support to low-vision and blind colleagues within and beyond journalism.
A native of Chapel Hill, N.C., Peter graduated from the University of North Carolina, where he was editor of the Daily Tar Heel.