LAT loses its D.C. national security reporter

Josh Meyer is leaving the Tribune Washington bureau for a gig at the nexus of journalism and academia. His exit note to the newsroom this afternoon begins here and continues after the jump with praise for his colleagues.

From: Meyer, Josh
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 3:30 PM
To: yyeditall
Subject: Sadly... saying goodbye after 20 years at The Times

Friends and colleagues,

I’m saying goodbye after two decades at the best newspaper ever. I’ve decided to accept an offer from Northwestern University’s Medill journalism school to help it build a National Security Journalism Initiative.

It wasn’t easy, given how much fun it has been to work for The Times, and more recently, with my Tribune colleagues here in DC, and to watch the daily miracle of seeing so many talented people working together to create such great journalism, both in print and online.

But after much soul-searching, I decided that this is too important, and novel, an opportunity to pass up. We’ll be trying to create something that will play a key role in the urgent effort to figure out how to teach—and how to do—the all-important kinds of national security journalism in this changing news environment.