WSJ Atlanta bureau seeking reporter

Wall Street Journal Atlanta bureau chief Douglas Blackmon sent out the following e-mail to the paper’s staff. I am assuming he’ll also accept outside applications.

Blackmon writes, “The Atlanta bureau seeks a top drawer reporter as it retools in the Journal’s evolving campaign to cover the full spectrum of business, political and national news. We are the Journal’s outpost in the fastest growing and most socially and culturally contradictory region of the country — spanning from Bourbon Street to South Beach, from the right wing countryside of Virginia to the left wing inner city of Atlanta, from glitz to grind across a vast and diverse territory. We also get to dive into the most delicious and arduous disasters a non-war-correspondent could hope for — hurricanes, floods and factory fires. In recent days we’ve written about the collapse of Obama voters in Virginia; the rise of racial politics in Atlanta; Pepsi’s tips for scoring women; Warren Buffet’s grab for railroads; the Teamster’s push for power in Washington D.C.

“Atlanta reporters cover critical corporate beats — Coca-Cola and Pepsi, FedEx and UPS; Delta, American and other major U.S. airlines; railoads; swine flu and key social agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. The reporter we’re looking for will take on one of those beat, as well a big dose of national coverage. How big and what shape it takes will have a lot to do with the energy, creativity and ambition of the reporter who gets the job.

“In the new world of the Journal, Atlanta will couple the unimpeachable financial journalism of Journal tradition with an aggressive mission to illuminate a great and fascinating swath of the U.S. We can also be an outpost for a dynamic combination of rapid fire reportage across Newswires, WSJ.com and the print editions, without abandoning long-form narrative. Yes, even in the post-llama era, with which we’re cool.”

“If you’d like to help shape that new paradigm for the Journal’s national report, drop a note to me and Betsy McKay.”

Photo credit: Destination360 Atlanta, Ga.