O’Kelley to take over Bloomberg’s DC operations

After months of turbulence in its Washington bureau, Bloomberg News is planning to promote business journalist Winnie O’Kelley to an executive editor position that will give her leadership over D.C. coverage, reports Dylan Byers of Politico.

Byers writes, “O’Kelley, who currently serves as the financial crimes editor for Bloomberg in New York, will expand her role to oversee all U.S. government, legal and regulatory coverage. She will now split her time between New York and Washington, sources said.

“The promotion comes after a wave of high-level departures at the D.C. bureau. In January, both executive editor Susan Goldberg and managing editor Tim Franklin left the D.C. bureau for jobs at National Geographic and Poynter, respectively. A month earlier, former managing editor Mike Tackett left to join The New York Times. In the wake of those departures, the bureau has suffered from what sources described as infighting among editors and a lack of direction.

“Bloomberg has also moved aggressively to make hires in that time, among them former POLITICO journalists Craig Gordon, who serves as deputy managing editor, and Jonathan Allen, who serves as White House reporter.

“But the organization is still casting about for someone to lead its political coverage. Though O’Kelley is widely admired within the company — ‘she’s whip smart,’ one source said — she has little experience in government. Her forte is Wall Street, not Washington. Prior to joining Bloomberg last year, she spent two decades on the business desk at The New York Times.”

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