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Routine newsroom hires are not really all that newsy these days, but with the Los Angeles Times on the verge of staff-reduction buyouts there is some extra interest. The latest hire is for the Washington bureau. Sarah D. Wire, a former intern in the bureau who has been covering Washington by herself for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is coming over to cover the California delegation online. Here's the memo from politics editor Christina Bellantoni:
From: Bellantoni, Christina
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2015 9:03 AM
To: yyeditall
Cc: Sarah D. Wire
Subject: Staff announcement
To the staff:
I’m excited to announce that Sarah D. Wire is joining the Los Angeles Times to provide intensive coverage of California’s congressional delegation for our new politics site, latimes.com/politics.
Working out of the Washington bureau and the congressional galleries, Sarah will cover the 55-member delegation, aiming to illuminate the relationships, personalities and political dynamics. She will chart the delegation’s sentiments on major issues and help readers get to know their own members of Congress and their role and influence on Capitol Hill.
Sarah will work closely with Noah Bierman, a National correspondent in Washington who will focus on bigger-picture coverage of the delegation. (If you haven’t read Noah’s terrific piece on the Pelosi-McCarthy relationship, don’t miss it: http://lat.ms/1OFdmwv)
She is currently the one-woman Washington bureau for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, with a beat that spans Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court and even the presidential campaign.
She previously worked as a statehouse reporter for the Democrat-Gazette, and was named by the Washington Post as one of the best state-based political reporters of 2013. The same year, the Arkansas Press Association named her Young Journalist of the Year.
Before joining the Democrat-Gazette, Sarah covered state politics for the Associated Press in Idaho and Missouri. Her references described her as aggressive, passionate and tough, and fluent in digital tools. One of them told me he was still embarrassed he had been scooped by Sarah during the 2010 gubernatorial campaign in Arkansas, when she uncovered details about how Jim Keet avoided taxes. The story immediately caused his fundraising to nosedive and “changed the tone of the race” even though she had just taken on the beat.
This is a bit of a return to the bureau for Sarah. In 2008 she was an intern there, sitting close to Doyle McManus’ office and helping with our coverage of the Democratic presidential convention. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri.
Please join me in welcoming Sarah and following her on Twitter. She’ll get started Oct. 19.
Christina
Wire tweets:
A bit of personal news, in mid-October I will leave #DemGaz and join @latimespolitics to cover the California Congressional Delegation.
— sarahdwire (@sarahdwire) September 30, 2015