NYTimes biz desk adds Grynbaum to cover TV

New York Times business editor Dean Murphy and deputy business editor Peter Lattman sent out the following announcement:

More good news for our media team. Michael Grynbaum, who has been covering Mayor de Blasio as our City Hall bureau chief, is moving to BizDay to write about television, teaming with John Koblin and Emily Steel in chronicling one of the most fascinating businesses for us and Culture.

Michael is no stranger to BizDay, having covered the 2008 financial crisis for us. In one of his most memorable — and enterprising — stories, he sneaked into the Lehman Brothers trading floor on the day of its bankruptcy. His eyewitness account was filed from his Blackberry inside a stall in the men’s room.

Michael has spent most of his career on Metro, where he has developed a reputation as a witty, observant and urbane reporter. As an intern, he stalked Mayor Bloomberg for six weeks and discovered that he is driven to his subway stop in a mega-ton SUV. At City Hall, he has helped define the de Blasio mayoralty by chronicling the administration’s various missteps, from the first botched snowstorm to his continuing hate-hate relationship with Governor Cuomo.

Close readers of the Grynbaum byline know that he’s already dabbled in media reporting. In 2011, he wrote about Margin Call, the acclaimed film about the financial crisis. Last summer, he wrote about Gore Vidal, William Buckley and the origins of television punditry. The Vidal-Buckley debates, he wrote, are like ‘”Crossfire” with a script by Noel Coward.” Last year, readers were also entertained by Michael’s recaps of HBO’s “The Leftovers.”

Metro Editor Wendell Jamieson said Michael’s voice will be missed. “We love Michael, his camaraderie and smarts, but most of all his fine way with words,” he said.

Michael grew up in West Hartford, Conn., where he edited his high school paper, Hall Highlights. He lives with his girlfriend in Manhattan, and they spend much of their time watching TV with their Persian cat, Pajama.