Is NYT’s Leonhardt slated to become DC bureau chief?

Keach Hagey of Politico.com writes Thursday that there’s speculation that New York Times business columnist David Leonhardt, who won a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year, could become the paper’s next Washington bureau chief.

Hagey writes, “Filling the slot is Executive Editor Jill Abramson’s first big decision in her new role, following the one she made before it was announced to pull former Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet up to be her managing editor.

“Leonhardt, 38, is part of a younger generation at the paper, and as the paper’s economics and business columnist, not an obvious choice for such a highly political job.

“But he’s well-respected among his colleagues and this year won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary for what judges called ‘his graceful penetration of America’s complicated economic questions, from the federal budget deficit to health care reform.’

“He joined the Times in 1999, having previously worked at The Washington Post and Business Week. At Yale, he edited the Yale Daily News.

“Leonhardt did not respond to a request for comment. A New York Times spokeswoman declined to comment.”

Read more here. Leonhardt was interviewed by Talking Biz News earlier this year.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.