Bloomberg hires AJC reporter

TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Matt Kempner, the business editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, sent out the following announcement to the staff on Friday afternoon:

Wonderful Margaret Newkirk has chosen to pursue a new path in her journalistic career.

She has accepted a job in Atlanta with Bloomberg. She starts in mid May covering state and local governments and their intersection with business and public debt – in part focusing on news that folks focused on government bonds will need to know.

Her last day in the office is expected to be April 19. No decision has been made yet about what will happen to her utilities/telecom/media beat and the position. If you have news on this front, please email Margaret while she is still here and cc me.

During her nearly nine years at the AJC, Margaret dug deep into big stories for the AJC. Her investigative coverage of Cobb EMC raised big, troubling questions about one of the biggest electric co-ops in the nation. She wrote on the painful political divide between metro Atlanta and the rest of the state. She told readers about development in flood-prone lowlands.

On the business beat team she has given us strong watchdog coverage on stories ranging from utility rate cases to nuclear plants and the indictment of Cobb EMC’s chief (which, of course, stemmed from issues Margaret raised in her earlier coverage).

While much of her time at the AJC was spent covering utilities, her first beat here was focused on social services. She showed her investigative chops on one of her early 1A pieces.