Bloomberg hires Hays from WSJ to be executive editor for corporate news

Laurie Hays, a deputy managing editor at The Wall Street Journal, is leaving the paper to become executive editor of corporate news at Bloomberg News. She starts her new job on Aug. 4.

Her memo to WSJ staffers posted on the Web by Politico’s Michael Calderone stated, “After 23 years at the Journal  I am leaving to become executive editor of corporate news at Bloomberg. While it is hard for me to imagine working any place but the Wall Street Journal, this opportunity is exciting and challenging and I am looking forward to a new phase of my career.

“It has been an honor and a pleasure working with you for the past two decades. You are some of the finest reporters and editors in the business and it has been such fun collaborating with you to put out this great newspaper. My years at the Journal have been the best any journalist could have hoped for and I can’t thank you enough for all the great work and camraderie. I have learned so much from all of you and will always be grateful for having had the chance be your colleague.”

Read more here. Hays’ departure from the Journal was not mentioned by managing editor Robert Thomson in his reorganization e-mail sent out earlier Thursday, but in a separate e-mail to the staff.

The Bloomberg release had editor Matthew Winkler stating: “This is the perfect opportunity to expand the management team so we can devote more direction to developing depth reporting for the dozens of
industries we report on daily.”

And Hays, in the release, stated, “I am very excited to be joining Bloomberg. I have long admired its high journalistic standards, global reach and multimedia approach to delivering news. This is clearly an exciting time in the growth of Bloomberg News. I am happy to be part of such an inspired and forward-looking organization.”