Jim VandeHei, co-founder and CEO of political news mainstay Politico, will be stepping down from the company, along with four other key staff, as part of a massive shakeup occurring at the popular beltway news site.
The news was first reported Thursday by The Huffington Post.
The New York Times on Thursday reported that chief operating officer Kim Kingsley, chief White House correspondent Mike Allen, chief revenue officer Roy Schwartz and executive vice president Danielle Jones will also be leaving.
Kingsley will depart sometime this summer. Jones will step down “before then,” according to a Thursday memo from Politico owner and publisher Robert Allbritton. Allen and VandeHei will remain until after the November presidential election. Allen, one of the site’s most popular writers, also heads staple newsletter Politico’s Playbook.
The New York Times on Thursday cited tensions over recent management strategies and the future of the news organization as reasons for the mass exodus. CNN on Thursday reported that “VandeHei clashed with Politico publisher Robert Allbritton over budget issues and expansion efforts.”
VandeHei confirmed his depature in a Thursday memo. He said that the change “will not be abrupt” and that he will remain at the site through the 2016 election. VandeHei also said he soon plans “to start a new venture.”
“Greatness, in a business setting, is not one or two people doing the impossible. It’s the right group of people with distinct skills coming together at the right time to bring the right idea to life,” VandeHei wrote. "Together, we did this. We created one of the most respected and feared brands in journalism — and one of the few with a business model based on real results, not mythology or hope.”
Politico is owned by Albritton Communications. Publisher Robert Allbritton, in a separate Thursday memo posted on the site, wrote that “these transitions make perfect sense for the publication, coming a decade (almost to the day) after I recruited them to join this cause.”
Allbritton also reported that Politico co-founder John Harris will assume the title of publisher in addition to editor-in-chief.
Maggie Moran, who is well-connected in New Jersey and New York Democratic politics, has established Moxie Strategies in Asbury Park, NJ.
Husch Blackwell Strategies has added FleishmanHillard alum Michael Slatin as a principal in its public affairs group.
Rory Cooper, a veteran Republican operative and policy specialist, has joined Teneo’s Washington office as senior managing director in its strategy & communications practice.
Brian Fallon, who served as national press secretary for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential run, is signing on next month as Vice President’s Kamala Harris’ campaign communications director.
TikTok is nothing more than a Chinese propaganda tool that poses “a grave threat to America’s national security and, in particular, impressionable children and young adults,” say two Congressmen who want the platform registered as a foreign agent.
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