Politico Co-Founder John Harris To Return In New Role As Global Editor In Chief

Ted Johnson
·16 min read

John Harris, the co-founder of Politico, is returning to media outlet’s newsroom leadership as global editor in chief.

He’ll succeed Matt Kaminski, who is stepping down as U.S. editor in chief on Aug. 31. Kaminski will serve as editor at large, and will contribute regular pieces on U.S. and global affairs.

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Harris has served as editorial chair, advising the company on longterm strategy. He co-founded Politico in 2007, and the publication has had a huge impact on the way that politics and policy is covered in the digital age. Politico was sold to Axel Springer for more than $1 billion in 2021.

Goli Sheikholeslami. the CEO of Politico, wrote in a memo to staffers, “To be clear: John is not returning to a job he once had. To the contrary, he is stepping into a new role as the single top editorial executive in the company, with newsrooms in the United States and Europe reporting to him.”

In 2014, Kaminski left The Wall Street Journal to launch Politico Europe as its first editor in chief, and he has later editor in chief of Politico’s U.S. operations after Harris stepped down from daily leadership in 2019.

Sheikholeslami wrote that Harris’s return to executive duties “marks a significant moment for our company.”

“His intimate knowledge as a founder gives him a unique perspective to see and seize opportunities others may not. With John at the helm, we are primed to embark on Politico’s most ambitious journey yet, as we set sail to traverse greater distances at unprecedented speeds.”

In a memo to staffers, Harris wrote, “I asked for these responsibilities because I believe a founder has special abilities to drive an enterprise toward transformational goals. By virtue of being present at the creation of this publication, I have an understanding of where we have been in the past that can help me organize our team—at a very fluid moment in the media industry–around where we want to travel in the future.”

This is the latest change in leadership at Politico. Dafna Linzer departed from her role as executive editor after a year in the job. She reported to Kaminski, and her exit came after they reportedly had disagreements over the editorial direction of the news outlet.

The full memos from Sheikholeslami and Harris are below.

Team,

I am writing today to share important news about two POLITICO founders: John Harris, who permanently transformed the Washington media landscape as the co-founder of POLITICO, and Matt Kaminski, whose impact has been equally profound as the first editor in chief of POLITICO Europe and as the current editor in chief of our U.S. operation.

Both Matt and John have been instrumental in shaping the strategy for our next chapter and have proven to be invaluable allies to me in my role as CEO. In our recent conversations, Matt was candid in expressing his readiness for a new professional challenge after a remarkable nine-year tenure leading two newsrooms — a period that saw POLITICO reach new heights.

It simultaneously became evident — to our delight — that John, who, as Editorial Chair, has been advising us on our long-term strategy, is invigorated by the possibilities offered by new ownership and the potential of this team and is eager to roll up his sleeves and do the work required for us to win.

Together, John, Matt and I decided that Matt will move on from his current role as U.S. editor in chief on August 31st. At the same time, John will take on a new role as POLITICO’s first global editor in chief.

Matt is one of the great builders in journalism today. It’s a reputation he has established in both of his leadership roles at POLITICO. In 2014, Matt left the Wall Street Journal and moved to Brussels, where he launched one of the most successful media start-ups of the past decade.  The other half of Matt’s tenure has been in Washington. In his five years here, POLITICO greatly expanded the breadth and impact of its journalism. Matt pushed us to grow out the coverage of technology and energy, national security, the states and the judiciary, among other areas, and launch numerous successful products, not to mention a new Playbook team. He steered the newsroom through several election cycles and a pandemic. His work was essential in facilitating a successful change of ownership in no small part by exhorting us to embrace a new conception of the publication—one with agenda-setting capacity around the world and on the most complex policy matters.

John’s return to executive duties marks a significant moment for our company, and you’ll hear more from him later today. But first I want you to hear from me. Throughout my time at POLITICO, I’ve been deeply impressed not only by John’s journalistic prowess and political expertise but also by his visionary ideas about the future of media and POLITICO’s role in Washington and on the global stage. His intimate knowledge as a founder gives him a unique perspective to see and seize opportunities others may not. With John at the helm, we are primed to embark on POLITICO’s most ambitious journey yet, as we set sail to traverse greater distances at unprecedented speeds.

To be clear: John is not returning to a job he once had. To the contrary, he is stepping into a new role as the single top editorial executive in the company, with newsrooms in the United States and Europe reporting to him. He will report to me, with a line also to Mathias (like all top news executives within Axel Springer.) He does not intend to fill the U.S. editor in chief job. With another presidential election cycle underway, and with an indispensable partner in Jamil Anderlini in Europe—John believes it is pivotal that he be immersed simultaneously in the Washington and global stories.

John has made a long-term commitment to help me, and all of us, fulfill our commitments in the strategic plan — and to in turn make POLITICO a genuine force in the global media arena. He told me he was feeling more energized about POLITICO and its future than he was even at the launch in 2007. In my time with John, it is clear that he really means it when he says, “POLITICO is a start-up again.” I know he means it when he pledges that people here should be having more impact—and more fun—than they could anywhere else in media. He’s exactly right. That’s why I am here, and why I hope you are too.

We are at one of those pivot points in the life of the publication—a moment filled with deep gratitude for the leadership that got us here, and with excitement about the vast possibilities for the future.

After Matt finishes up his managerial responsibilities as editor in chief at the end of the summer, he plans to turn to writing and working on projects that support POLITICO’s ambitions as editor at large.  He will produce his own journalism, contributing regular pieces on American and global affairs, and representing the publication where needed. He is eager to re-engage that side of his professional life that first established him as one of his generation’s top journalists and delivering for our readers his unique perspective and wit. I have also asked him to continue to serve as a strategic adviser to me on our global ambitions.

We have lots of work to do, and you’ll be hearing lots from all three of us — Matt, John, and I —frequently, over the balance of the summer. For now, our most important work is to express our profound gratitude to Matt for his industry-leading achievements at POLITICO.

With appreciation and excitement for all to come,

Goli

Here is Harris’ memo to the staff:

Team,

Today is a big day in the life of POLITICO, and I want to start by joining Goli in thanking Matt for his friendship and for his outsized role in building this publication on both sides of the Atlantic.

We are at a moment of vast possibility — a new owner, a new CEO, an ambitious new strategic plan. There are goals within our grasp now that were beyond reach just a couple years ago. Matt is one of the principal authors of this change, a prodigious achievement for which I am hugely grateful.

These new possibilities for POLITICO are what prompted me to contemplate new possibilities in my own career. In recent years, as Editorial Chair, my responsibilities have been to oversee Matt and European Editor in Chief Jamil Anderlini at a high level, while participating in deliberations over POLITICO’s larger strategic direction and engaging in my own writing. Now, in the wake of Matt’s news, I asked Goli and Mathias Döpfner to give me full-time executive responsibilities as POLITICO’s first Global Editor in Chief.

As Goli noted, this is not a return to a job I previously held but the assumption of one that never existed previously.

I know from some of my conversations that there is curiosity about this. What are the duties of this new role? Why do I seek this change? What are the ideas I shared with Goli and Mathias in seeking this new opportunity to lead?

I don’t propose to answer every question at once—there will be many opportunities for me to share thoughts and listen to yours in coming days and weeks—but I wish to be unmistakably clear today about the most important point. I asked for these responsibilities because I believe a founder has special abilities to drive an enterprise toward transformational goals. By virtue of being present at the creation of this publication, I have an understanding of where we have been in the past that can help me organize our team—at a very fluid moment in the media industry–around where we want to travel in the future.

Here is what POLITICO is now: One of the rare media startups that has successfully managed the transition to mature, long-term prosperity, based on the depth and credibility of our editorial and business performance in the discrete arenas of Washington, selected states, and Europe.

Here is what Goli and I are determined we will soon be: An editorial and business powerhouse in which those discrete arenas are more tightly connected to an encompassing global vision, with POLITICO unambiguously in the very small top rank of the world’s most commanding and influential publications.

In my view, the large issues shadowing the next generation are at the intersection of complex scientific questions with questions of power and values. This is true of technology and AI, in which free societies must decide how to make these instruments of human empowerment rather than instruments of surveillance, manipulation, and control. It is true of climate change, and the existential question of how we meet our energy needs while saving a warming planet. Increasingly, it is true of questions relating to public health, genetics, and ethics.  All these questions are linked to an overarching one: Will free societies be equal to the challenge of governing themselves and providing better answers to the problems of the age than their brutal authoritarian counterparts?

These are the century’s most important stories, and POLITICO journalists are brilliantly positioned to lead the world in covering them. We are immersed in these issues not only in Washington but in Brussels and Sacramento, where much of the world’s most important regulatory policy is written. At this very moment our reporters are deeply embedded in the campaigns that will determine the future of the war in Ukraine, the new shape of the European economy, the identity of Britain after Brexit and the fate of the American presidency. In recent weeks we have told this story from Iowa and New Hampshire to Ankara and Amsterdam. I am asking for a renewed commitment to our longstanding mission: to be the global source for authoritative, agenda-setting journalism on politics and policy, presented in the most vivid and compelling way. 

I came to journalism when a friend, almost randomly, asked me to write some articles for my college newspaper. Suddenly, it seemed clear to me this was what I was meant do. This is a profession that allows us to live at once in the world of ideas and in the world of action and history in the making. On various occasions, people have approached me about whether I would contemplate a return to executive duties outside of POLITICO. My mind always returns to the same place: My life’s work is right here. For 16 years, from the very early days, it was obvious that this place has something special. Our publication was born with the right idea, at the right time, with the right people. What’s been wondrous to me, even as times and many people have changed, is that the core idea is compelling enough to be self-sustaining. We still have the ability to attract the very best, and to inspire these people to give their very best, on behalf of our core mission. This ambition radiates a kind of magnetic power, on others and on me. So here I am–in a new role in a publication with far greater reach and responsibilities than existed at the time when I last was editing in a day-to-day way.

Because so much of my and Goli’s global agenda is intertwined with strong notions about what we need to do in Washington, we are not filling the position of U.S. editor in chief. I will fill this role,even as I work with Jamil, my direct report, on coordinating journalistic resources that now stretch from Berlin to Sydney.

I am humming with anticipation to begin this work on September 1, and would like to share in very broad strokes a preview of what that work will be. My pride in our publication is entirely consistent with a belief — shared by Matt, as well as Goli and Jamil — that there is a significant gap between what we are and what we could be. I have seen many once-successful established news organizations, or briefly successful start-ups, fall to earth by failing to be clear-eyed about their own gaps between aspiration and achievement. Self-critique is the indispensable prerequisite to self-improvement.

Here are four areas where I intend to push hard and invite others to join me:

–Our conception of POLITICO

We built this publication with a measure of bluster and artful improvisation. At the outset we had a couple dozen journalists. Now we have some 600. But our guiding principle of quality over quantity has not changed. Some of our work meets the standard—that’s exactly what we expect from one of the world’s most consequential publications. Some of our day-in, day-out reporting and writing does not. We must immerse in a nonstop conversation: Are we reporting what we know in the most original and arresting way? If a story seems routine, how can we transform it into something more? What dots are there to be connected by our expertise and analytical illumination? How can our report be more stylish and more urgent?

There aren’t many people at POLITICO who can work harder than they currently do. But every single one of us can press ourselves on how we can aim higher.

–Editing for impact

The most brilliant journalism flows not just from reporters on the ground or from editor-driven ideas but from what should be an exhilarating interplay between both. This is one of our top priorities: more impact for our work. Stories sometimes run in a fashion that is perfectly fine, but with a different frame or a little extra effort could have published with cymbals crashing. I wish to fortify our journalists across every platform, make their jobs more satisfying, and build a more robust culture of collaboration to ensure that everything we produce – from our stories to our live events and multimedia journalism — hits that mark.

A couple important notes. … This notion of impact applies just as urgently to subscriber content as it does to work on the free site or newsletters. In everything we do we must strive to give our multiple audiences things they can’t get just as well elsewhere.  In addition, impactful work doesn’t mean heavy or self-important. Let us bring more voice, humor, and humanity into our report.

–Ensuring our best work finds the audience it deserves

In the early days, when the very existence of our publication hinged on getting noticed, we brought a mania to the question of how to build and engage audiences. These days, in a media landscape infinitely more crowded, it is more essential than ever that we are organized to cut through the noise. It is imperative that we work with a renewed urgency to maximize audience engagement and story promotion through the focused and coordinated use of the levers at our disposal. This must – and will be – an obsession.

–Managing our talent

Here again, an improvisational effort got us where we are, but it can no longer carry us where we need to go. POLITICO’s newsroom – in lockstep with our excellent HR partners — must be more purposeful in how we recruit, manage and retain our only real asset. Too often journalists equate hiring more bodies with achieving greater impact. Instead, our focus should be on recruiting from a more diverse pool and developing journalists at every level with a distinctive signature to their work. A diverse team is more than a worthy societal objective – it is essential to joining the ranks of the world’s great publications.

In the coming weeks, people in the U.S. and European newsrooms will be hearing more from me and Jamil about how we will pursue these large themes as we simultaneously work toward global integration. My priority between now and September 1 will be to assess what organizational changes are necessary to harness the exceptional leaders here most tightly to our strategic objectives. Where we see missing capacities, we will recruit vigorously from outside.

This is going to be a time of rapid and thrilling change, one that demands everyone challenge themselves in new ways and bring the full force of their intellectual energy to the job — I’m going to be looking for partners in every corner of the newsroom to do exactly that.

For now, I will return to something I mentioned at a recent town hall, that I regard POLITICO as “in the business of making magic.” I am not invoking the supernatural. The editorial magic we seek flows from the most natural traits of successful people: Curiosity about the world, a desire for connection to other people we respect, a determination to organize our life’s work around idealistic purposes. Let’s see how far these can take us in the months and years ahead.

Warmly,

John

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