White House reporter Paletta leaves WSJ

Damian Paletta, a White House reporter for The Wall Street Journal, is leaving the paper for a job at The Washington Post.

Paletta sent out the following to his colleagues on Friday:

It has been one of the honors of my life to work alongside so many talented, courageous, and principled journalists. When Dow Jones took a chance on me in 2006, I had no idea this job would take me to the ends of the earth – to the Forbidden City, the Eiffel Tower, the Blue House, and the White House.

The late nights and the early mornings and the nights-that-turned-into-mornings and the confused stares from family members and the adrenaline and the anxiety and the exhaustion and the Sundays and the emails and the urgents and the updates and the nutgraphs and the leders and the readbacks (holy moly all those readbacks) and the two-stars and the smashed phone (*cough* David Enrich *cough*).

And the friendships. And the fun. So much fun.

Now it seems like a blur. But it was real-time history. We wrote history together.

The WSJ’s reach is unparalleled. Its impact is awe-inspiring. The world is a different place – and to show some bias, I would say a better place – because of the WSJ.

I learned from the best. People who taught me the craft, but also about life, parenting, and friendship. When to speed up and when to slow down. How to write, but also how to listen. I owe you. My family owes you.

Today is my last day. I’m going off on a new adventure. But please know I am forever grateful to have worked with colleagues who incessantly and meticulously bring journalistic excellence to the world.

Thank you.

With love and friendship,

Damian