NYT biz writer leaves for Huffington Post

Peter Goodman, until recently the paper’s national economic correspondent and now a writer for the Sunday business section, is leaving the New York Times for the Huffington Post, reports Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post.

Kurtz writes, “‘For me it’s a chance to write with a point of view,’ Goodman says in an interview. ‘It’s sort of the age of the columnist. With the dysfunctional political system, old conventional notions of fairness make it hard to tell readers directly what’s going on. This is a chance for me to explore solutions in my economic reporting.’

“Goodman, who spent a decade at The Washington Post before his three years at the Times, says he will still rely on facts and not engage in ‘ranting.’ And while he was happy at the newspaper, he says, he found he was engaged in ‘almost a process of laundering my own views, through the tried-and-true technique of dinging someone at some think tank to say what you want to tell the reader.’

“Goodman’s hiring is a coup for Arianna Huffington, who earlier this week hired Howard Fineman from Newsweek, which The Washington Post Co. is in the process of selling to businessman Sidney Harman. The Web site’s editorial staff is now nearing 100.

“Huffington says Goodman will become business and technology editor and will be hiring several reporters to expand the coverage. He will also ‘be writing lengthy, deep-dive pieces’ on such subjects as redesigning capitalism and job creation.”

Read more here.