Former WSJ reporter joining Semafor as global security editor

A former Wall Street Journal reporter who was fired for what the paper believed was an unethical business dealing with a source has been hired by news startup Semafor as global security editor.

Jay Solomon has been a senior director at public relations firm APCO Worldwide for the past five years.

Prior to joining APCO, Solomon served as the chief foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, which he joined in 1998. During his time with the Journal, he was stationed in Jakarta, Indonesia; Seoul, South Korea; New Delhi, India; and Washington, D.C., covering national security and U.S. foreign policy.

In October 2022, he sued a Philadelphia law firm, accusing it of having used mercenary hackers to oust him from his job and ruin his reputation. The hackers found emails where Farhad Azima, an Iranian-born aviation magnate who has ferried weapons for the CIA, offered Solomon a stake in a new business. 

Solomon says he never took Azima, who was a source, up on his proposal or benefited financially from their relationship.

Solomon has also been a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where he is an expert on Iran’s and North Korea’s nuclear programs and weapons proliferation networks in the Middle East.

During his career as a journalist, Solomon was honored by National Press Club on numerous occasions for his foreign policy and diplomatic reporting. He was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize on three occasions.