Rumor: Steve Coll To Leave WP?

When we wrote earlier today “August is sure to have some big moves ahead this month,” we had this big one in mind: Harry Jaffe reported a rumor that we’ve been chasing for two days to no avail: Steve Coll, one of the icons of the Washington Post, might be leaving to go to work for the New Yorker.

The move would be a blow to the paper, and will likely be the paper’s second high-profile departure announced next week–if the Mike Allen rumors prove true.

“The decibel level inside the Post newsroom gave the rumor credence far beyond idle chatter. Most Posties think Coll is out the door,” Jaffe writes. “If true, it’s a big and surprising loss.”

Big? Yes. Surprising? Only sort of. Many of the Posties we’ve spoken with over the coming days said that they knew there was a restlessness surrounding the former managing editor.

It might be more accurate to say that the surprise is in what it would take for a two-decade veteran who spent six years at the top of the news department and has cleaned up nearly every journalism prize imaginable with his recent book “Ghost Wars” to actually WANT to leave the paper….

Stay tuned. This story’s just starting.

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