The Guardian US has hired prominent British-American journalist and commentator Richard Wolffe as a columnist helping to cover the 2016 election.
Wolffe, who helped launch MSNBC.com in 2013 but left the site in November amid a broader shakeup, will file his first piece on Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate. He is also the author of several books about the Obama presidency.
Guardian US editor Lee Glendinning told The Huffington Post that she was “thrilled” to welcome Wolffe as a political columnist.
“He brings an in-depth knowledge and understanding of so many players in the presidential campaign, and writes such compelling reportage and narrative that you really feel like you are there, on the ground, experiencing the key moments as they unfold,” Glendinning said.
The hire reflects the Guardian US’s expansion into the American media market even as parent company Guardian Media Group has had to rein in spending after falling short of revenue targets this year.
The publication announced Friday it had added three technology reporters to its West Coast bureau -- Nellie Bowles from California Sunday magazine, Julia Carrie Wong from SF Weekly and Danny Yadron from The Wall Street Journal -- and Monday said it had brought on humorist and former Grantland writer David Schilling as an editor-at-large.
Wolffe told HuffPost he looked forward to joining the Guardian US “as a longtime reader and a professional rival.”
“The Guardian’s huge growth in the U.S. and worldwide is built on its brilliant blend of journalism with character,” Wolffe said in a statement. “I’m delighted and honored to be joining such a talented team as a columnist on U.S. politics, and much more, at such a critical time.”
The British-based Guardian launched in the U.S. in 2011, gaining widespread recognition in 2013 for its reporting on disclosures from National Security Administration whistleblower Edward Snowden, for which it won a Pulitzer Prize. In July, the publication also made news by becoming the latest in a string of digital-media operations to unionize.
