Semafor Confirms It Poached WaPo Reporter Months After His Suspension
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Semafor on Wednesday finally confirmed its poaching of The Washington Post’s star political reporter David Weigel, announcing in a memo that he and several other reporters will join the newsletter-based outlet for its October launch. Weigel’s hire was first reported by The Daily Beast’s Confider newsletter and comes after a star turn at the Post: Despite suspending him for a month over a sexist retweet (which kickstarted weeks worth of drama at the paper), he has long helmed his influential newsletter, The Trailer, and spearheaded election coverage. According to a Semafor memo, Weigel will continue to cover D.C. politics for the new outlet. An internal WaPo memo confirmed his exit: “Dave quickly established himself as one of our most insightful and idiosyncratic chroniclers of American politics. He had a rule: Spend no more than a week at a time inside D.C., and his coverage was the richer for it.” Elsewhere in its announcement, Semafor confirmed it had hired NBC News reporter Benjy Starlin, The Hill White House reporter Morgan Chalfant (which Confider reported earlier this week), and tech reporter Louise Matsakis.