The Washington Post is losing two veteran political hands to an online startup. It’s not quite a case of reporters becoming independent journalists/bloggers. The venture is backed by Allbritton Communications.
There’s some irony in the departure of John Harris, the Post’s political editor, to the web, considering the kerfuffle he had with WashingtonPost.com. And Harris himself makes the point that he’s not abandoning print. Says Kit Seelye in The Times:
It is too soon to say whether the departures of Mr. Harris and Mr. VandeHei are early evidence of a migration by veteran print journalists away from ink-on-paper reporting. “No one should interpret this as people are taking flight from the old media,” Mr. Harris said. “This is a time, obviously, of change and unquestionable anxiety for the news business as a whole, but neither of us felt anxiety about our roles or pessimism about the robust future of The Post.”
