FT and WSJ swap staffers

Jim Romenesko of Poynter.org points out that The Wall Street Journal has been hiring Europeans from the Financial Times staff, and the FT has been hiring Americans from the Journal’s staff.

Romenesko writes, “First, the FT hired Peter Spiegel away from the WSJ’s DC bureau. Then the Journal hired (fifth item) Jean Eaglesham from the FT’s NY bureau. FT replaced Eaglesham with Kara Scannell, from the WSJ’s DC bureau. And, most recently, Francesco Guerrera was poached by the WSJ from the FT’s NY bureau.”

A memo from FT editor Lionel Barber states, “War for talent watch: Our print and online rivals are hiring (and poaching), particularly in the commentary category and in the US market. Increasingly, our competition is coming as much from Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the British press. Media convergence on multiple platforms means we have to work even harder to distinguish FT content through the highest quality and relevance.”

Read more here.