Earlier today the Washington Post announced that it had hired National Review's Washington Editor Robert Costa. This marks perhaps the first time in decades that a top-tier "mainstream" news outlet has hired away a reporter from a right-leaning publication.
By contrast, left-leaning political magazines like the Nation, Mother Jones, or the New Republic have frequently been places where publications like the Post or the New York Times turn to for their reporter farm teams. Elite national media outlets have even taken somewhat frequently to hiring former Democratic political aides as their reporters as we've chronicled for years in our "Revolving Door" series.
Costa's achievement is thus all the more notable. Our congratulations to him in his new gig. And kudos to new Post owner Jeff Bezos for encouraging his staff to think outside the box like this.
Here's the full announcement of his hire:
We are very pleased to announce that Robert Costa, one of the country’s best chroniclers of the Republican Party, will join The Washington Post as a National political reporter.
New York magazine, which called Bob the “golden boy of the government shutdown,” wrote this about him last month: “[H]is reporting from behind the closed doors of Republicans in Congress held up as indispensable, a shining beacon of the form in which a man tirelessly asks questions and prints answers without fluff or bluster.” In other words, our kind of guy.
Bob comes to us from National Review, where he has been Washington Editor, directing a team of reporters and leading its Capitol Hill bureau. Before National Review, he was a Robert L. Bartley Fellow at the Wall Street Journal. Bob has appeared frequently as a political analyst for CNBC.
Bob is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and has a master’s degree in politics from the University of Cambridge, where he was an active member of the Cambridge Union debating society.
His first day will be Jan. 6. Please join us in welcoming him to The Post.
NB: The closest comparison to the Costa Post hire would be Politico's hiring in 2007 of reporter Jonathan Martin, now of the New York Times. Costa's hiring is more notable because six years ago Politico was merely an internet start-up and not particularly influential.
