Politico is rolling out details of its new operation Politico Pro, describing it as an effort to mix politics and policy. They’re still in the hiring process, so if that’s of interest, read on.

On Sunday afternoon, Politico Pro Editor-in-Chief Tim Grieve sent a lengthy note to staff unveiling details on the new venture. “I want you all to hear the news from me first,” he wrote.

The memo is heavy on complimentary prose about staff, saying, among other things, that the new operation will encompass “the best journalists in the business” who will cover the new product with the same “high-impact” and “high-velocity” as Politico.

Highlights:

* Some of the content will be for Politico Pro subscribers only.

* The launch will happen in early 2011.

* Dan Berman (who was hired away from E&E) is heading the Energy reporting team.

* Kim Hart (who was hired away from The Hill) will be Tech Editor. Grieve said she was put into place Dick Cheney style, meaning he asked her to help find the best person to head the team and it ended up being her.

* Politico Pro will have its own copy desk and web team. LaRonda Peterson was snagged from Politico‘s copy desk.

* When the team is complete, there will be 40 editorial employees. Some have been hired, but there are still more hires to come.

Read Grieve’s full internal memo after the jump…

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Politico’s Deputy Managing Editor Tim Grieve sends an internal memo to staff bearing the subject line: We’ve been scooped! And guess who scooped them? But the love is fleeting. Soon Grieve takes to cheerleading Politico‘s new energy team. Now, if he just had pom poms.

From: Tim Grieve
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2010 6:50 PM

Fishbowl just broke the news that  Darren Goode is leaving The Hill to
join us at POLITICO.

It’s big news — Darren is a major league energy reporter — but it’s
only half of the story.

With Darren’s arrival next month, POLITICO will clearly have
Washington’s most dominant energy-reporting team. Darren Samuelsohn,
Josh Voorhees, Robin Bravender and Darren Goode would each be the ace of
any other line-up. We’ve got all four of them on ours.

Position for position, no one else in Washington can match our energy
team. And we’re not done yet; energy editor Dan Berman and I will have
more hires to announce soon.

Stay tuned, and say hello to Darren when he arrives next month.

Newly hired Politico reporter Tony Romm apparently didn’t think the embargo meant him earlier this week, when he blew right through the Pew Center’s embargo rules on a study on broadband use – an annual study that is reportedly highly anticipated. Politico published the story one day before the embargo was supposed to be lifted, causing upheaval among reporters around town who had been working on long-term pieces.

Pew wasn’t thrilled either.

In fact, Pew was upset, as it was described to FishbowlDC. But, funny, when we asked Pew, notoriously sensitive about its PR, if it was upset about the broken embargo, the researcher who wrote the report, Aaron Smith, declined to comment, saying the affair had been handled internally and was over. Smith, however, did apologize in an e-mail obtained by FishbowlDC, saying Politico was supposed to honor the embargo rules like everyone else.

The embargo from Pew was clearly stated: “Pew Internet: new report on home broadband adoption (for Thursday a.m. publication”). To even obtain this e-mail, reporters had to write to Pew to confirm they’d respect the embargo.

Romm had no comment when we made the request over e-mail this morning. But on Wednesday, the day he broke the embargo, he expressed remorse on Twitter: “I have done more harm than good today, and I’ve only been at work for 29 minutes. This can’t go well.”

WaPo‘s Cecilia Kang alludes to “another outlet” breaking the embargo. Read about it after the jump…

> Update: A comment from Dan Berman, editor for Politico. “POLITICO mistakenly broke the embargo on the home broadband report yesterday. Tony has apologized to Pew and we consider the matter closed,” Berman said through a spokesperson.

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More musical chairs on the energy and environment beat… We told you that Roll Call‘s Josh Kurtz was leaving for a gig at E&E Daily. A month ago Coral Davenport took a gig at Politico but has already resigned for a role at National Journal. Now we’re told that after nine years with E&E, Dan Berman has taken a job at Politico.

It’s getting tough to keep them all straight.