Huffington Post hires NYT’s energy reporter

Henry Blodget of The Business Insider reports that The Huffington Post has hired Tom Zeller, the New York Times energy reporter.

It’s the third hire from the Times’ business desk by the Post in the past year.

Blodget writes, “Zeller says Huffpo’s compensation will be ‘comparable’ to the New York Times. He says he is moving because of the opportunity to work with his former NYT colleagues in a ‘2.0’ newsroom in which he will have more freedom and responsibility.

“‘We’re clearly charting new territory,’ Zeller says. ‘I see it as a big adventure… We have the opportunity to build a newsroom that is innovative and can compete from the ground up in a new way.’

“We asked Zeller whether he thought he was rare at the Times in seeing Huffpo as a fun adventure — or whether dozens of his colleagues would soon be making the same move. Zeller thinks he might be rare in that his interests have always been a ‘hybrid’ of print and digital. ‘I grew up listening to the mating calls of modems,’ he says, observing that he was a subscriber to AOL before it was even called AOL.”