Politico’s executive editor Dafna Linzer stepped down on Thursday, ending a yearlong tenure marked by top scoops and notable staff departures.
Editor-in-chief Matt Kaminski said in a memo to staffers on Thursday that it was Linzer’s decision. However, he alluded to a conflict between him and Linzer on Politico’s strategy. Discussions about her exit started in December, he wrote, and her last day will be March 31.
“We have always been aligned on the goal of making POLITICO the world’s premier source of news on politics, policy, and power,” he wrote. “But we saw ourselves diverging over the best way to get there.”
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Politico declined to provide any additional comment, referring to Kaminski’s memo.
Linzer told staffers in a separate memo that her tenure was “more rewarding than I could have imagined,” highlighting accomplishments like their bombshell story on the leak of the Supreme Court draft decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, as well as their continued coverage of the Capitol riot investigations.
“Our journalism across the board simply flourished in a year of tremendous change for the publication,” she wrote.
One Politico journalist told The Daily Beast on Thursday that “a lot of people were blindsided by this.”
“She has made a bunch of really big hires, really talented reporters, and was really starting to crack down a vision of what our coverage would look like,” the journalist said.
That surprise extended to outside observers. Linzer appeared at the French Ambassador’s residence in Washington D. C. on Wednesday for a party, hosted by Puck, honoring the First Amendment. She appeared cordial as she socialized alongside Politico journalists and Axel Springer executives, according to two attendees. According to one of the attendees, Linzer seemed tired of Politico when asked about it, but she gave no indication that her departure was imminent.
“She’s a professional,” an attendee said.
Linzer joined Politico in March 2022, succeeding Carrie Budoff Brown, who left for NBC’s Meet the Press. Her time at the outlet was defined by both who was courted to the publication and who left it. Star political reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns both returned to Politico from The New York Times, each being given wide latitude on what to cover. However, White House reporter Laura Barrón-López, congressional reporter Andrew Desiderio, and national correspondent Alex Thompson, who helmed its West Wing Playbook newsletter, were among the departures.
“It’s the writers and the editors that drive POLITICO’s success, that define its character and its mission and I am so grateful to have been immersed in that commitment and excellence,” Linzer wrote. “I know transitions are hard but I am around for the rest of the month and my door, as ever, is always open.”
Linzer’s exit also comes weeks after she lashed out at another departing reporter, congressional reporter Marianne LeVine, at Politico’s event last month to kick off the 118th Congress. Witnesses told Confider that Lizner publicly questioned LeVine’s decision to work at The Washington Post and disparaged the Post’s current state of operations. The confrontation left LeVine visibly upset, particularly as multiple lawmakers were at the event.
Kaminski told staff that the publication will announce its interim leadership plans in the coming days.
“The most important priority for us as a publication is to make sure you are supported and that we are organized in the best way to focus on the journalism that we have to deliver to achieve ambitious goals.
