Kevin Diaz Re-Hired in Star Tribune Washington Bureau

After nearly three months without a full-time reporter covering Washington, D.C., the Star Tribune has made a hire — and its newest reporter won’t need long to get up to speed: Kevin Diaz, who left the paper to stay with McClatchy following the March sale of the Star Tribune, has accepted the position of chief correspondent. In a Wednesday afternoon email to staff, editor Nancy Barnes announced the news, as well as the hiring of a new D.C.-based intern, Jake Sherman.

Diaz, who was unavailable for comment Wednesday night, told Minnesota Monitor in mid-March that he “didn’t relish” leaving the Star Tribune to cover D.C. politics for papers in Idaho and Alaska, citing exciting times for Minnesota’s congressional delegation, which includes America’s first Muslim representative (Keith Ellison), Minnesota’s first female senator (Amy Klobuchar), and a new chair of the House Transportation Committee (Rep. Jim Oberstar). He said he had “no choice” but to leave the paper.

“The alternative was to give back every performance pay raise I’ve received since I came to Washington in 2000,” he said. The pay range for his new job was advertised at $60,000 to $75,000.

Greg Gordon, who worked for the Star Tribune Washington bureau for 13 years and is now a D.C.-based investigative journalist for McClatchy, praised the hiring of Diaz.

“It’s a great move for the Star Tribune and should quiet a lot of the criticism about the Washington bureau,” he said, adding that Diaz is a “good journalist” who’ll bring “a lot of depth and texture to the paper.”

“We were stunned by this decision,” he acknowledged, “because McClatchy is big and right now is more stable that theStar Tribune.”

During Gordon’s time at the paper’s Washington desk, there were as many as five reporters. He said Diaz, who will be the paper’s only full-timer in D.C., has his work cut out for him. “They’re changing what they’re doing,” Gordon said. “They’re not going to cover as much national news. I’m not persuaded metro newspapers should stop their coverage of national news, but if it’s what’s needed to find a profitable spot in the media market, then that’s something they have to do. We’ll have to see if that works.”

New intern Sherman, a senior at George Washington University and editor-in-chief of the college newspaper, replaces Brady Averill, the University of Minnesota graduate who finished her yearlong internship last week.

Barnes emailed this announcement to staff:

I’m delighted to announce that Kevin Diaz, a veteran Washington correspondent, will be our chief correspondent in Washington beginning June 18. We asked Kevin to take on this role after a national search that delivered more than 100 applicants for our open position. We interviewed a number of candidates before deciding that Kevin was the best person, by far, for this role.

As many of you know, Kevin started his career at the Star Tribune as a police reporter in 1984 and went on to win awards for his coverage of gang crime and city hall. He later moved to Washington as a senior writer for the Washington City Paper, before joining McClatchy as a correspondent in Washington in 2000. Kevin stayed with McClatchy when the Avista deal closed in March, covering Washington for the Anchorage Daily News and the Idaho statesman. His enterprise work includes multi-part pieces reported from Cuba, Brazil and Mexico, which have won several awards, including the Associated Press Managing Editors Award for international reporting and recently the sweepstakes award in the state AP contest. As our chief correspondent, Kevin will be responsible for covering our delegation, as well as major state and regional issues before Congress, such as the farm bill. We expect him to be instrumental in covering the upcoming Senate race, and the Republican convention headed our way. Kevin will be joined in Washington by an intern: Jake Sherman, a senior from George Washington University and editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper. He has interned at the Washington Post, the Journal News in White Plains, NY, the office of Rep. Christopher Shay, CNN’s Crossfire, and the Stamford Advocate. He will intern with us from June 18-Aug. 31. They will report to Doug Tice. For those of you interested in the details: We have rented space in the Scripps Howard newsroom, effective June 18, since we lost our own bureau space in the McClatchy sale. Please join us in congratulating Kevin and Jake on their roles.