WSJ/Dow Jones editor says goodbye

Rob Wells, the deputy Washington bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, wrote a farewell e-mail to his colleagues on Friday.

Wells wrote:

All – This is my last day at Dow Jones Newswires/Wall Street Journal. I’m heading off to a new career as a teacher, and the first stop will be at the University of South Carolina journalism department.

I want to thank my friends in Washington, New York and points beyond for your support during my 9 ½ years with the company, which included five years – five hectic, chaotic and historic years — as head of the Newswires Washington operation. This has been a great honor to write and edit stories for Newswires and recently for WSJ.com and the WSJ. A special thanks to Neal Lipschutz, Steve Wisnefski, Gabby Stern, and Jerry Seib for always having my back during a period of huge transition in the bureau.

I leave Washington with the best staff yet — reporters who file headlines in between feeding their kids, who run to the airport at a moment’s notice to cover a political or business crisis, who literally walk through the snow, when DC is shut down by a storm, to file indicator stories on time. I leave the Newswires/WSJ real-time team in the hands of Mark Anderson, an outstanding journalist and excellent manager, who knows where the bones are buried in the Washington.

As a journalism professor, I will remain in contact with you all in the months ahead, so please stay in touch.