Wordblog

Exposure to a wider internet audience may be increasing the career opportunities for foreign correspondents. The Times has lost two middle eastern reporters — one to the New York Times and the other to the Los Angeles Times.

The Times’s middle eastern correspondent Stephen Farrell, who was kidnapped during the siege of Falljah in 2004, is moving to the NY Times, while Ned Parker, who also covers Iraq, goes to the LA Times.

A Times spokesman is quoted in the Guardian saying:

It’s interesting to see that our reporters are being hired by international news organisations.It is a reflection of the strength of the online presence of brands such as the Times and the Guardian that our talent is being targeted by groups such as the New York Times and Los Angeles Times and shows that British reporting is widely respected in the US and beyond.

The Times is also losing its chief political correspondent, Anthony Browne, who is moving to the right-wing thinktank Policy Exchange.