Bloomberg makes changes in DC bureau

Bloomberg News editor in chief Matt Winkler made the following staff announcements on Friday:

Earlier today during the weekly news meeting, we discussed some changes conceived to help us prepare for the 2012 U.S. elections.

We have a unique opportunity to leverage our award-winning reporting on Washington and economic issues across all Bloomberg platforms.  After more than a year of expansion during which we tripled our presence in Washington, we are poised to maximize our strengths.

Al Hunt, our Washington executive editor, who joined us in 2005 after 36 years at the Wall Street Journal and who has built the most dynamic bureau in Washington, has decided to focus exclusively on overseeing coverage of the U.S. elections in the newly-created position of Washington editor.

He will be succeeded as Washington executive editor by Susan Goldberg, who joined us last year from the Cleveland Plain Dealer where she was editor and had previously served as editor of the San Jose Mercury News.  Susan has overseen the growth of our state and local government reporting teams and she will add federal government to her responsibilities which already include regulation coverage and the editorial coverage for Bloomberg Government.

Mike Tackett, who has managed our expansion as bureau chief since he joined us in 2008 from the Chicago Tribune where he was Washington bureau chief, will now manage all of our political coverage as managing editor for government.

Cesca Antonelli, currently the managing editor for company news in the Americas and previously managing editor for company news in Europe, will become bureau chief and managing editor for Washington and will help Susan run the bureau on a day-to-day basis.

Peter Elstrom, who is the team leader for the telecom team in New York and former assistant managing editor of BusinessWeek, will succeed Cesca as the managing editor for company news in North America, reporting to Laurie Hays.

Joe Winski, who has served as bureau chief for Bloomberg News in Chicago, Washington and Tokyo and as managing editor for company news in the Americas and for regulation, will become managing editor for reporting on government contracts as we continue to sharpen the focus of BGov and our regulation coverage.

Tim Franklin, the former editor of the Baltimore Sun who joined us earlier this year, will succeed Joe in his role as managing editor for Regulation.

Please join me in congratulating everyone on their new positions.