Jonathan Greenberger joins POLITICO as executive vice president

Jonathan Greenberger

Announcement from CEO of POLITICO Media Group Goli Sheikholeslami and Global Editor-In-Chief John Harris:

Team,

The two of us, John and I, have some great news to announce. A key new member of our leadership team will be joining soon. This is an arrival that both reflects the growing magnetism of our publication and seriousness in carrying out our strategy to grow the value and impact of POLITICO.

Jonathan Greenberger is a dedicated journalist and highly skilled leader with years of managerial experience, most recently as Washington bureau chief of ABC News. He will be joining us on April 22, as executive vice president. He will report jointly to John as Global Editor in Chief and me as CEO, reflecting that Jonathan’s interests and responsibilities bridge the newsroom and global publication-building.

Given his formidable reputation in Washington media, Jonathan’s imminent arrival is exciting on its own. We hope, however, that you will read this announcement in the larger context of our goals.

Since arriving in this job two year ago, I have been consistent in stating that the most important factor in achieving our very ambitious strategy was attracting and developing the most promising leaders. We have done that by elevating the roles of people who were here when I took over, and by recruiting top media executives from across the profession.

Jonathan is a critically important step forward in this effort.

He has spent most of his career at ABC, where he is a deeply respected figure, so the decision to join us was not one he made lightly. The attraction, he made clear to us, was to join a news organization at a moment of high fluidity. Jonathan understood something we hope everyone here understands: There is no limit in sight to what we can do to make this very good publication much greater, as a business and as a journalistic force around the world. Realizing these possibilities — at a time of technological change and significant competition in key arenas — is going to require a new level of dedication, discipline, innovation, and managerial acuity.

We enticed Jonathan with a mix of near-term and long-term assignments.

In the near-term, we are asking him to create a template for how we can set the agenda at major events in the United States and globally, starting with the conventions this summer. Jonathan will take the lead on behalf of the newsroom in ensuring major publishing success at the 2024 conventions. As we recently announced, POLITICO is partnering with CNN in Chicago and Milwaukee to produce the CNN-POLITICO Grill, which will be the prime destination and place to be for VIP convention goers in each city. We have made a publication-wide commitment to editorial and business success at the conventions, as a high-point of our year-long effort to be second to none in covering the 2024 elections. Jonathan will coordinate the substantial editorial assets we are bringing to bear at the conventions, work closely with our successful newsroom live events team, and regularly collaborate with business-side colleagues to execute a winning approach.

In the longer-term, we are expecting Jonathan to be an indispensable partner as we think about how to organize for the future. Growth requires big ideas. It also requires the right structure and allocation of resources to execute upon those ideas, as well as coordination with all parts of the newsroom, so that our efforts to expand journalistically are tightly harnessed to a coherent publishing strategy.

Jonathan is supremely qualified for both the thinking and the doing. From his first conversations with John a few months ago, followed by my own discussions with him, it is clear that Jonathan has spent years deeply engaged in this type of work. At ABC he is known as idealistic, perceptive, and organized — as well as deeply caring of his colleagues.

Jonathan shrewdly noted in his conversations with us that he sees ‘winning’ news organizations operating as a triad. At one point is editorial impact — with well-supported journalists driving the story. At another point is audience strategy — with best-in-class people driving growth and higher engagement. The third point is resources — how to direct our people and investments to maximum productivity.

In recent months, the newsroom teams in North America and Europe are displaying more impact and creativity than ever. Our audience strategy under Francesca Barber — like Jonathan, a dual report to me and John — is making rapid gains to improve the reader experience and position us to make even more impact with our journalism. Going forward, Jonathan will help us with the third point — the resource decisions necessary to keep growing. Another strong recent hire, Eva Lee, POLITICO’s director of newsroom operations, will report to Jonathan. Additionally, some of you in recent days may have met Jen Rizzo, a long-time and highly accomplished former CNN Senior Producer, who joins us as an Editorial Director to consult on our special projects planned for the conventions.

In sum, this place has all engines roaring, at precisely the moment when our strategy requires it.

A bit on Jonathan personally. He is a native of Columbus, Ohio, and a 2005 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis. He came to ABC shortly after graduation and learned much about politics and media as a mentee of George Stephanopoulos. In due course, Jonathan became the youngest-ever executive producer of the Sunday “This Week” program. He flirted for a season with a career change, and is a graduate of Stanford Law School. The realization that journalism is his true calling brought him back to the profession, and he became bureau chief in 2014.

We are thrilled that Jonathan’s expertise, energy, and values will now be on our team.