His first effort towards journalism was a descriptive account (in the Daily News 14 February 1846) of a meeting of Wiltshire labourers to protest against the Corn Laws.

[2] In 1868, when the price of the Daily News was reduced to one penny, Robinson was appointed manager, and turned the paper around.

At the prompting of another correspondent, John Edwin Hilary Skinner, he started the "French Peasants Relief Fund", which reached a total of £20,000.

[5] In 1887 Robinson became titular editor, the actual night editing being carried on chiefly by Peter William Clayden.

[2] Robinson died at his home in Addison Crescent, Kensington, London on 30 November 1903, and he was buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery together with his wife, and their three children.

[2] Robinson was a Reform Club member, and associated with the circle of James Payn, William Black, Sir Wemyss Reid, and George Augustus Sala.

In 1854 he became a professional member of the Guild of Literature and Art, a society which was founded by Charles Dickens and his friends for the benefit of authors and artists.

The guild failed, however, to fulfil the aims of its founders, and Robinson with Frederick Clifford, as the last surviving trustees, arranged for its dissolution in 1897.