CNN Politics Digital continues to siphon talent from Politico, announcing Monday two new hires from the site.
In a memo to staff Monday, CNN Politics Digital Executive Editor Rachel Smolkin announced former Politico deputy White House editor Hilary Krieger will be the outlet’s enterprise editor. In her new job, Krieger will help “shape and edit” enterprise coverage from her colleagues and create a global affairs and national security beat. Daniella Diaz, formerly a Web producer at Politico, will join the digital production team headed up by Politico alum Dianna Heitz.
The two moves are the latest in an exodus from Politico to CNN. In January, The Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone reported that Heitz became the sixth Politico journalist to make the move in the last half-year.
In a January memo, Politico CEO Jim VandeHei addressed the issue of staff turnover, explaining that the churn is due in part to Politico’s status as “a talent factory.” Politico, for its part, has made a number of high-level appointments in recent months, adding a new editor in Susan Glasser, a senior politics editor in NPR’s Charlie Mahtesian and a new editor of Politico Magazine in Garrett Graff.
Politico has also brought aboard a recruiter, Katy Theranger, in recent months. Writing for The Washington Post, Erik Wemple noted that Politico’s decision to hire a recruiter was due in part to the outlet’s “annoying yet enviable problem” of producing coveted reporters.
Here’s the memo:
All,
Please join me in welcoming several new folks to our fast-growing digital politics team.
Hilary Krieger will be coming onboard as enterprise editor. She’ll have a dual role — helping Steven Sloan to shape and edit the terrific enterprise coverage coming from Peter Hamby, Maeve Reston, Chris Moody, Stephen Collinson, MJ Lee, Ariane De Vogue, Mark Preston and others, and also carving out a global affairs/national security specialty working with the fabulous Barbara Starr, Elise Labott, Jim Sciutto and Ross Levitt on their scoops and enterprise for digital.
Hilary was the deputy White House editor at Politico, and before that she was a multi-platform editor in The Washington Post’s opinion section. She has a history of following in the path of CNN leaders: Hilary followed Andrew Morse as editor-in-chief of The Cornell Daily Sun and Wolf Blitzer as a Washington correspondent at the Jerusalem Post. She worked there for a decade — first in Israel and then as Washington bureau chief — covering the State Department, the Pentagon and the White House. She starts Feb. 23.
Daniella Diaz will be a key member of Dianna Heitz’s new digital production team. Daniella, who also joins us from Politico after she graduated from University of Texas-Pan American, will be making sure digital stories get the best possible treatment with great photos, headlines, videos and photo galleries. She’ll also work closely with Dianna and Eric Weisbrod to ramp up our already strong presence on social media as we continue to create and innovate. Daniella starts Feb. 24.
Jeremy Diamond, who has been an important member of our team for months as a freelancer, has joined us officially as a breaking news reporter. He is already part of the CNN family, but I wanted to recognize his already-impressive contributions to the team; we’re looking forward to much more from him.
And finally, I wanted to take a moment to thank and congratulate Ashley Killough, who is moving to David Chalian’s unit to cover the Republicans during the 2016 campaign. During a time of dramatic change on the digital politics team, Ashley’s help and professionalism have been invaluable. She was indispensable in guiding me and the rest of the newcomers as we tried to learn our way in a unfamiliar world. Ashley is a co-founder of the new team and will remain an important member even as she embarks on new adventures.
More to come.
Rachel
