With just over a month until Election Day, CNN has hired away Andrew Kaczynski and his three member BuzzFeed political team.
Kaczynski, who leads BuzzFeed Politics’ K-File team, has produced a string of political scoops in recent months, and told The Huffington Post talks with CNN began over the summer. “To be at the biggest name in news for the last month of what has been the craziest election in modern history is just a great opportunity for me and everybody on our team,” he said. “When the opportunity was there, we made sure we took it.”
Kaczynski will be joined at CNN by BuzzFeed deputy politics editor Kyle Blaine and reporters Nate McDermott and Christopher Massie.
CNN executive vice president of editorial Andrew Morse told HuffPo “when you’re in a pennant race, you try to bring on the best talent you can to make sure your team is as strong as it can be.”
CNN and BuzzFeed have tangled in the past, with an August PR spat over who dominates among millennials, and an at times contentious relationship between CNN boss Jeff Zucker and BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith.