NYT biz desk moves reporters to Shanghai, San Francisco

New York Times business editor Dean Murphy sent out the following announcement on Friday:

As we continue to flex our muscle on the most compelling business stories across the globe, I’m pleased to announce that Keith Bradsher and Nathaniel Popper will be taking up exciting new roles this summer.

Keith is moving to Shanghai to write about business and the economy in China, and Nathaniel is moving to San Francisco to take up a new beat covering financial technology.

The long-time Hong Kong bureau chief, Keith has been witness to the dramatic evolution of China into a financial superpower, which he helped chronicle last year in the award-winning “China Factor” project. Energetic, dogged and collaborative, Keith was also part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for the iEconomy series in 2013. Earlier, his work on SUV crashes prompted car manufacturers to adopt new safety measures, including the cleverly nicknamed “Bradsher Bars.”

In a testament to his range, Keith has also been a consistent contributor to the international report, bringing readers inside the tragedy of natural and man-made disasters across Asia. After Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, for example, he showed us in vivid detail the harrowing struggle for survival.

“Keith has the uncanny ability to end up in middle of the latest, breaking news,” says Adrienne Carter, international business editor. “Witness the time last year he just happened to be in Turkey when a Russian jet fighter was shot down. Naturally, he produced a page one piece, while also gathering string and color two other stories.”

Nathaniel has been with BizDay for four years, having joined The Times from the Los Angeles Times in 2012 to cover markets and finance. He was part of a team that was a Loeb finalist in 2013 for coverage of JPMorgan Chase’s London “Whale” losses, and his aggressive coverage of virtual currencies led to a critically acclaimed book on Bitcoin, “Digital Gold,” published last year.

Nathaniel’s new beat will focus on the intersection of finance and technology, as tech changes the very nature of money and throws the financial industry into turmoil. Nathaniel has laid the groundwork for this beat in his recent coverage of banking. He has written for the magazine about the automation of finance, and for BizDay about Wall Street embracing the blockchain frenzy, technology changing the culture of banking – even Goldman Sachs competing with Silicon Valley for recruits. Most recently, he has delved into the mysterious and fascinating world of an experimental virtual currency project known as the Decentralized Autonomous Organization.

Nathaniel will take this new beat to San Francisco, where he will continue to report to finance but will work closely with the tech cluster – and have ready access to tech companies that are taking on Wall Street.

“In Silicon Valley, new financial tech start-ups are popping up all the time, threatening traditional banking and finance companies,” says Pui-Wing Tam, tech editor. “We’re thrilled to have Nathaniel focusing on the topic and collaborating often with tech reporters.”