Madden named Washington economics editor at Washington Post

Washington Post business editor Lori Montgomery, economics editor Damian Paletta and deputy economics editor Jen Liberto sent out the following announcement on Wednesday:

We’re delighted to announce that Mike Madden is joining the Business Desk as Washington economics editor, driving our signature coverage of economic policy at the White House and on Capitol Hill.

In his new role, Mike will manage a broad portfolio that encompasses many of the most critical issues in Washington, including battles over spending and taxes, inflation and trade, and the ideological direction of the major political parties on pocketbook economic issues heading into the midterm elections. Mike grappled frequently with these issues during a stellar run at Outlook, where he spent nearly seven years as deputy editor, editor of PostEverything and, most recently, acting editor of the section. His economic-policy oeuvre includes a visual piece comparing the longest government shutdown in U.S. history in 2019 with an array of shorter things, including wombat pregnancies and Anthony Scaramucci’s tenure in the Trump White House.

In Outlook, Mike earned a reputation as a creative, insightful and talented editor who pushed writers to tackle a wide array of thought-provoking subjects. Among the stories he edited were a recollection by the former New York Observer editor on Jared Kushner’s days owning the paper, a piece of reported fiction on how nuclear war with North Korea might unfold, a March 2020 essay by the former director of the White House pandemic office on how President Donald Trump’s decision to close the office impacted the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, and a prescient warning in September 2020 that Trump was unlikely to abide by the results if Joe Biden won the election. In 2017, Mike also launched an innovative annual “Year in Preview” feature that showcases the insights of Post reporters on such topics as cryptocurrency, climate change and pants.

Before joining The Post in 2015, Mike was editor of Washington City Paper, where he nurtured the careers of several staffers who have migrated to our newsroom, including Perry Stein, Jenny Rogers and Aaron Wiener. He also worked as a reporter covering politics and government for 10 years, first in Gannett’s Washington bureau and then at Salon.com. He began his journalism career covering small towns in South Jersey for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Mike was born in D.C. and raised in Rockville, Md.