WALL STREET JOURNAL TO DC BUREAU: DROP DEADThis past week, I noticed that Shailagh Murray of the
Wall Street Journal (sub. req. and
not available on Nexis) is now Shailagh Murray of the
Washington Post.
Every so often, you'll see a major Washington correspondent jump from one paper to another: in April 2004, Peter Wallsten of the
Palm Beach Post Miami Herald became Wallsten of the
Los Angeles Times. The previous fall, Robin Wright of the
LAT became Wright of the
Washington Post. This kind of thing is usually unremarkable. But Murray's move is not a unique event. Consider:
- The "Political Capital" column by Alan Murray, formerly co-host of CNBC's "Capital Report," has magically disappeared from recent editions of the newspaper.
- Abracadabra: John Harwood is all but reduced to writing the just-the-facts "Washington Wire" column.
- "Washington Wire" used to run on the front page on Fridays. Poof! Now it's on A4. [UPDATE — I'm corrected in an e-mail: this happened early last year. A leading indicator, maybe?]
- Gerald Seib's "Capital Journal" column? Now you see it, now you don't!
- Biggest of all, Al Hunt (also seen Saturdays on CNN's "Capital Gang") recently left the Journal to head Bloomberg's DC bureau. That's pretty big, but I've seen nary a mention of this anywhere.
In journalism, we like to say three makes a trend. This is five major changes [mostly] since the beginning of 2005. Clearly
something big is happening at the
Wall Street Journal. And it's not a good something.
Some reporters have arguably abused the "news analysis" medium by including what appears to be personal opinion. (One is the
NYT's
Adam Nagourney, who has earned such "admirers" as
"Adam Nagourney." But the
WSJ's political reporters
are were a damn sight better.
If the
WSJ's reporters can't share the knowledge they've gleaned by writing news analysis, why bother pay to keep a Harwood or a Seib around? Why not just hire recent J-school graduates? Maybe that's exactly what they're doing.
Hey
Romenesko, get any interesting e-mails lately?
posted by WWB at 6:04 PM |
