Anthony Shadid of 'Washington Post' Jumps to 'New York Times'

By: Joe Strupp The Washington Post is losing one of its top foreign correspondents to The New York Times. Anthony Shadid, who won a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting at the Post in 2004 and was a finalist in 2007, will leave his job as Post Baghdad bureau chief at the end of the year to join the Times' Baghdad staff.

In an e-mail to E&P, he adds that his wife, Post Baghdad staffer Nada Bakri, will also become a Times scribe in the bureau. He writes that the couple "are going to work in the Times' Baghdad bureau, then eventually move elsewhere in the Middle East. We're starting in January. I've been at the Post since January 2003, and this is my second stint for the Post in Baghdad. Nada joined the bureau in May."

He also states: "It was a difficult decision to move. I still have deep affection and admiration for the Post. My time there represents my favorite years in journalism, and Don Graham remains an inspiration to me. Nada and I just thought it was time to seek new challenges."

The change comes as Post Foreign Editor Doug Jehl recently told E&P that the Post was seeking to beef up its Middle East coverage.

Shadid previously worked for the AP and for the Boston Globe.

He was unavailable for comment Tuesday morning.