After two years writing Politico’s London Playbook email, Alex Wickham is set to leave for Bloomberg in the summer. He will have a correspondent-at-large role there, focusing on British and global politics. This will no doubt be a welcome change for him to go back to writing his own stories rather than ripping off everyone else’s work for a living. The Playbook job is a killer – the late nights cutting and pasting are not something one can do forever. Big money Bloomberg is said to be set on expanding its UK operation with some punchy hires…
This will kick off a big Lobby merry-go-round over the summer with political editor and senior reporter jobs going at the Telegraph and Guardian as well as the Sun on Sunday and Sky News after David Wooding went to the Sunday Express and Kate McCann went to TalkTV. Hope for Ben Riley-Smith yet…
As the picture above shows, the late nights and early starts required by Playbook will age you. Nevertheless, Guido understands interviews for the Playbook job are underway with some top lobby names already approached. Some runners and riders – Ben Riley-Smith, Hugo Gye, Patrick Maguire (which would add to the Politico takeover of Times talent), Katy Balls, Seb Payne, James Heale, Kate Proctor, Matt Chorley and Christian Calgie. Hacks with limited Tory contacts should forget it…
Peston earlier tweeted that the ERG were falling in behind May’s deal. Just a warning to Guido’s friends in the foreign exchange game. Please take Peston’s insights into the Conservative Party with a bag of salt…
Bloomberg, who should know better, reported Peston’s tweet as if it was a verified ITV News story. The newswire flashed it out across their terminals. Millions changed hands, boom and bust within minutes resulted…
Top Corbynista Richard Burgon went after Blair this morning by blasting him for speaking at Bloomberg, in his words the “heart of banking”.
A reasonable point which could only backfire if, say, Jeremy Corbyn had also recently given a speech at Bloomberg. Oh look! Here is Jez giving a speech there in September. There is even a video of Burgon’s boss addressing the “heart of banking”.
Classic Burgon…
Guido hears the Telegraph’s respected Senior Political Correspondent Tim Ross is leaving to join Bloomberg. Author of ‘Why the Tories won‘, Ross pretty much writes the paper on Sundays so that will be a major gap to fill. He’ll be working for Bloomberg in Westminster with a focus on Brexit. The Lobby team at the Telegraph has so far been relatively incubated from job losses. But would you really want to stay?
