NYT Announces Adam Nagourney’s Replacement On The Politics Beat: Three Dudes

Memo to the NYT staff from Bill Keller announcing changes to the political team:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: “Keller, Bill”
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:17:11 -0400
Subject: [NYT Newsroom] A new political team
To: “newsroom@ahot.nytimes.com”

To the Staff:

How do you replace Adam Nagourney, whose incisive judgment, boundless
energy, fairmindedness, sharp prose and refreshing lack of cynicism
have made him a Times byline to watch for since 1996? Frankly, that’s
not a question I ever looked forward to facing, but Adam is following
a longtime dream to Los Angeles, where he will replace Jennifer
Steinhauer as bureau chief this summer. (He was actually appointed to
this job once before, but was snatched back to join the coverage of
9/11.) This is good news for the new national editor, Rick Berke, and
good news for those of us avid readers of dispatches from the West.
But how do you fill the gaping hole in our political lineup?

Well, you do it with three people.

In contemplating Adam’s move, we realized that the day of the lone
national political correspondent has passed. The incessant demands of
print and Web, the mushrooming of competition in the field, our
readers’ expectations that we will be their most authoritative and
thoughtful source of information and analysis — all these things call
for a new approach. And that is what we have come up with.

Our new politics triumvirate:

Jeff Zeleny will be the lead day-by-day political reporter, covering
the major events with a steady supply of breaking news stories, news
analysis, profiles and blog posts. Jeff, who as the best-sourced
reporter on the White House is already central to our political
coverage, will move to politics full time. He is a relentless digger,
a lucid explainer and a delightful colleague, and, importantly, one of
our most adept contributors to the Web and TV. He came to us in 2006
from the Chicago Tribune, where he developed a reputation as the most
insightful chronicler of a certain Illinois senator. Before that he
did politics at the Des Moines Register — a place that takes its
politics mighty seriously.

Matt Bai, who has been our magazine’s political writer since 2002,
will move to the daily paper in a newly created job as political
columnist, providing his singular brand of unconventional wisdom. Like
David Leonhardt or Joe Nocera in Bizday, Matt will write regular
commentary on the candidates, the trends, and the mores of our
political life. He will continue to write for the magazine, though
less often. Before the magazine signed him up, Matt was a national
correspondent for Newsweek and a metro reporter at the Boston Globe.

Jim Rutenberg will bring investigative muscle to the political team.
After completing a couple of major non-politics projects for the
investigative unit, Jim will join the national political team in the
summer, and, working alongside Jeff, will focus on campaign-related
investigative and enterprise stories that get behind the news. Jim
came to us ten years ago from The Observer and the Daily News, and, as
a White House correspondent and olitical reporter during the last two
presidential campaigns, he has demonstrated both the political acumen
and investigative tenacity to make him a natural for this assignment.

Of course, we expect to draw on a wide array of talent — especially
from Washington, the national staff, Metro and investigations — to
assure our readers continue to get the most incisive political report
anywhere. Jeff, Matt and Jim will lead the charge.

Best,

Bill

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.