Politico deputy editor-in-chief Joe Schatz sent out the following on Wednesday:
POLITICO sits on one of the deepest benches of energy and environmental reporting talent in journalism, at a moment when our subscribers – at the state, federal and transatlantic level – are obsessed with energy politics and how they’re driving government and business decisions. We want to tap into that uniquely deep, talented bench in an even more rigorous and coordinated way, which is why we are bringing together our Pro energy policy and E&E News reporting teams into a single, powerhouse structure.
Today, we’re pleased to share several immediate next steps in this effort.
Debra Kahn, one of our most talented and entrepreneurial editorial leaders, will become our first Editorial Director for energy and environmental coverage. Debra will shape and oversee the unified team, which will report and write for both Pro and E&E News subscribers, with a mandate to bring ambition, coherence, and even more impact to POLITICO’s energy and environmental coverage, and ensure that our journalism is standing out in the broader market.
There’s perhaps no person at POLITICO better prepared for this task. Debra has an intimate knowledge of what makes the Pro and E&E News audiences tick; she spent her formative years as a reporter at E&E News before we recruited her in 2019 – two years before E&E was acquired by POLITICO – to be one of the first reporters on our nascent California policy team. She instantly gave our coverage heft and credibility in a market that’s since become one of our most important. Debra soon joined POLITICO’s federal policy team as deputy sustainability editor, editing the Long Game newsletter. As we embarked upon a major California expansion in 2023, we tapped Debra to launch and mastermind our California energy and climate coverage, including the California Climate newsletter, which has become one of POLITICO’s sharpest and most interesting newsletters. Debra last year began writing her own column, Currents, focused on energy and climate politics, giving her insight into how we can elevate reporters and editors to become must-read authorities on energy and environmental policy. She has a sharp eye for the intersection of politics and policy where POLITICO thrives, and the type of sourcing, writing and storytelling that makes POLITICO indispensable to our audience.
Debra has a clear vision of how we can deploy our reporting resources even more effectively, avoiding needless duplication, organizing coverage teams that report for all of our platforms – to turbo-charge our reporting on the White House, Congress, federal agencies and state and regional energy power centers, while also strengthening our focus on corporate and industrial energy decision-making. This strategy will allow us to build on our successful transatlantic energy collaborations with our European colleagues and help lay the groundwork for a truly global approach to energy coverage.
Debra will report to me; Alex and I will be partnering closely to ensure the success of this transition. The energy and environmental editors, will report into Debra, including several key leaders at the forefront of making this integration happen:
Matt Daily, whose industry and editing expertise has helped power one of our most successful Pro verticals since he joined POLITICO in 2012, will become Senior Energy Editor and ensure the strength of our Pro coverage while increasingly shaping industry coverage across brands.
Cy Zaneski, who has led E&E News for 21 years, will ensure E&E News publications deliver for our loyal audience.
Manuel Quinones, who has led E&E News’ congressional coverage for several years and become a key voice for POLITICO in events and briefings, will become Senior Editor for congressional energy coverage and help direct Hill-focused energy and environmental reporting for all of our subscribers, in coordination with Matt and Congress Executive Producer Zach Warmbrodt.
Erica Martinson, who directs E&E News’ environmental coverage and Greenwire publication, will now work with reporters and editors to deliver agenda-setting coverage across Pro and E&E News as Senior Editor.
Also key to this effort is Bob King, who is overseeing the Tech team and coordinating our approach to the politics of AI data centers (and who, of course, helped build POLITICO’s energy operation from scratch).
As we begin this amplification of our coverage, we’re listening closely to our audience — and one thing we consistently hear from our energy subscribers is that they want more reporting and intelligence from across state capitals and regional power centers. So one of our most immediate tasks this winter will be leveraging POLITICO’s unique breadth of reporting to narrate energy policymaking at the state and regional level like only we can. We will take immediate steps to coordinate our state capital energy reporters in California, New York, Florida and New Jersey with the dozen-plus E&E News journalists across the country covering utilities, permitting, renewable energy and more — from Denver to St. Louis to Vermont — and, most notably, in Texas. Stay tuned for more news to come imminently on that front.
Also, if you haven’t seen our relaunched energy podcast yet, it’s a great example of what we’re able to bring to bear with this unified team. On Monday’s episode, Josh Siegel interviewed Sen. Shelley Moore Capito; today featured Hannah Northey talking critical mineral politics. Check it out.
