WaPo Announces New White House Team

An internal memo from Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli, obtained by FishbowlDC: Looking Ahead at the White House and in Congress Though we're all still waiting for the curtain to finally come down on the 2008 presidential campaign, an equally compelling and competitive story begins Wednesday morning. In anticipation of the next administration we'll be reorganizing the National staff over the next few months and want to begin that process by filling some essential jobs. Anchoring our coverage of either a McCain or Obama White House will be four reporters. Three of them were central to our excellent campaign coverage this year: Mike Shear, Anne Kornblut and Chris Cillizza. They will be joined by a seasoned veteran - Mike Fletcher, who covered the Bush White House with distinction before moving to Financial, just in time to chronicle the powerful economic shocks of the last year. Mike Shear learned most of what he needed to know about politics on the Virginia staff, and as our lead reporter in the Republican race demonstrated an impressive range writing enterprise and breaking news while hop-scotching among long-ago campaigns for people named Huckabee, Giuliani and Romney. Anne came to the Post from The New York Times last year, bringing with her a deep knowledge of Democratic politics, particularly related to Hillary Clinton. Since last summer, she has brought the same perceptiveness and writing skills to her coverage of Barack Obama. Chris crammed a decade's worth of coverage in the last two years, writing analysis and breaking stories on our website, as well as enterprise stories and a column in the paper. He will continue his must-read political blog, The Fix. Mike Fletcher is ideally prepared to cover a presidency that will have to cope with massive economic challenges. For the 111th Congress convening in January, Shailagh Murray will be back in place on Capitol Hill, after a terrific sojourn documenting the rise of Obama. She will rejoin Paul Kane, who has stayed on the Hill and had an incredibly busy autumn covering the 110th Congress. Joining this strong team will be Perry Bacon, who in his year and a half since coming here from Time Magazine has spent time with every major presidential candidate and written perceptively and engagingly about them all. In the weeks ahead, we'll have more to say about the new shape of our national coverage. In the meantime, we're thrilled with the new team that will soon take the field. Marcus, Phil, Rajiv, Bill And Cillizza sent the following email to his email list: All, As the election draws to a close, I wanted to say thank you to everyone on my email list for traveling on this journey with me. I also wanted to let you know the plans for The Fix after tomorrow's election. The Fix will continue but rather than being focused primarily on the campaign, we will turn our attention to the White House. I will be part of a four-person team tasked with covering the transition and the White House -- hoping to break news and provide analysis of the politics and the policy of either President McCain or President Obama. I'll be writing for The Fix and the paper. Thanks to all for your support and kind words throughout this election season and for your continued backing as we take The Fix to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Have a great election day tomorrow. Best, Chris

Fishbowl

WaPo Announces New White House Team

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