WSJ’s Siconolfi, multiple Loeb winner, to retire after 40 years

Wall Street Journal editor in chief Emma Tucker sent out the following to the staff:

Dear All,

I’m writing to let you know that Mike Siconolfi will retire next month after a 40-year career at The Wall Street Journal.

Mike’s leadership and mentoring of reporters and editors around the newsroom has had a significant impact at the Journal. He’s held a number of reporting and editing positions here since joining in 1984 as a regional copyreader in New York on the Journal’s “Monitor Desk.”

As a reporter, Mike covered the courts, prosecutors, commodities, mutual funds and the securities industry before becoming a financial investigative reporter writing for the Journal’s front page. He later was named deputy editor of the Money & Investing group and led a team of financial investigative reporters. He has won four Gerald Loeb awards.

In 2014, Mike launched a broader investigative unit that has achieved enormous success. He led talented teams that won two Pulitzer Prizes for Investigative Reporting, for the Medicare Unmasked and Capital Assets series. He was also instrumental in landing a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for the Trump hush-money coverage, a Journal series that resulted in a former U.S. president facing criminal charges for the first time.

Mike also shepherded the Journal’s investigation into Theranos, which culminated in the demise of the blood-testing startup and prison for founder Elizabeth Holmes. He became a masthead editor in 2017. In 2023, he received the Elliott V. Bell Award from the New York Financial Writers’ Association for a long-term contribution to the advancement of financial journalism.

Almar Latour, who orchestrated Mike’s launch of the investigations team, said: “Mike Siconolfi set a new standard for investigative journalism, both for the Journal and for the news industry. He’s a news icon and I’m deeply grateful for all he’s done for our readers during his remarkable four-decade tenure.”

Reflecting on that tenure, Mike said: “It’s an honor to have worked for four decades with the best journalists in the world. I have a particularly profound respect for all the editors and reporters on our Investigations team. I cherish those relationships and I’m immensely proud of all of them and their accomplishments. This is a bittersweet moment – Jan. 29 is my 40-year WSJ anniversary – but I’m looking forward to further pursuing my musical ambitions, and will always be grateful for the opportunity to have partnered with you all.”

Mike’s career has been nothing short of exceptional. He embodies everything the Journal is and should be and we will miss his fearless leadership and expert news judgment.

I would like to thank Mike for his loyalty and dedication to the Journal’s mission, for the extraordinary reporting he’s helped produce and for all he has accomplished during his time here. Please join me in wishing him the very best for the future.

Emma