Politico‘s new SVP of Advertising and Business Development Peter Cherukuri, comes to the publication with a certain cachet.  Steve Jobs he isn’t.  But in the Washington media bubble, he’s considered a big deal. No doubt there’s pressure on him as Politico is banking on the hope that HuffPost‘s loss is their gain.

Sources inside Politico who attended recent staff meetings in the past few weeks let us in on details of the publication’s expansion plans. Meetings lasted up to 90 minutes. To avoid getting the bosses angry, most spoke on condition of anonymity. Read more

It’s coming up on Lois Romano‘s one-year anniversary as a senior political writer at Politico. Curiously, she has a grand total of 45 bylines since her move there last February from The Daily Beast.

Anyone familiar with the culture of Politico‘s newsroom knows that their writers are expected on an average day to file multiple stories, both long and short form. A search on Politico‘s website for Romano’s byline renders just over two pages of results. By comparison, a search for reporter Ben White‘s byline offers up more than 12 pages over the same time period (February 2012 to the present). In that time, White published 241 stories.

Romano’s and White’s colleague Jake Sherman published a staggering 386 items. Glenn Thrush, another Politico reporter, filed 156. Thrush also churned out three e-books he co-bylined in that time.

Lois is a well-known and respected reporter in Washington, having spent 28 years at WaPo. After that, but before joining Politico, she spent just under a year at The Daily Beast.

Why such a low number of bylines at a publication notorious for burning out reporters with its high productivity demands? We’ve requested comment from both Romano and Politico‘s Ombudsman and Editor-at-Large Bill Nichols. We also wrote Editor-in-Chief John Harris to inquire whether Romano has perhaps been on leave, whether for medical reasons or otherwise.

On average, Lois published four stories each month, peaking at nine stories in August last year.

Update: Harris got back to us… Read more

Politico‘s Editor-in-Chief John Harris is holding a staff meeting to sketch out the year ahead. The meeting, originally scheduled for today, has been moved to Wednesday due to a personal conflict with newsroom leaders. Harris didn’t elaborate. Staff is being given a choice of three time slots. While the meeting isn’t mandatory, employees can sign up for any of the offered times.

We do hope none of the leaders suffering from an Al Roker-related issue. Hey FakeJimVandeHei: Can you live-tweet this thing?

Stay tuned…

Wednesday morning was not a calm scene inside Politico‘s newsroom. While at least three members of the newsroom staff have lost their jobs as of late, due to, in some cases, merit and the natural course of restructuring post election, some rank and file reporters and even those in higher posts, are exhibiting a case of the jitters, wondering, are we next?

Fishbowl sources inside Politico informed us that at least three reporters and one editor were spotted cruising job listings on Wednesday morning, with many whispering and worrying about the recent job cuts. “They don’t seem to understand how this method of firing people and letting the rumor mill flourish is making a lot of people unsettled,” a Politico insider told us strictly on condition of anonymity. “A lot of fear. What’s worse, there’s a sense that the bosses LIKE the fear. Strange way to motivate a staff that has helped make you rich.”

But a Politico source in a leadership role tells us their fears are unfounded, that 2013 will be a year of growth and job security. What’s more, as we’ve reported, 30 positions on both the news and business side, are expected to be filled. And Editor-in-Chief John Harris confirms the sentiment.

“Politico has very robust plans for growth ahead of us in the new year and we expect everyone who is currently on our staff to be participating in a number of new initiatives that we will be undertaking in the new year,” Harris told FishbowlDC in a phone interview.

So should reporters just take a chill pill? To put this in some context, Politico recently parted ways with a small number of employees — Photographer Jay Westcott and Politico Pro technology writer Jess Kamen and others.  As it was explained to us by the Politico source in a leadership role… Read more

When HuffPost‘s Michael Calderone left in Politico in March of 2010, no love was lost on either end. The whys of that are hard to decipher — he broke news and worked at a feverish pace as most reporters there do — but the fit was never a good one. Which may help explain his rollout of anti-Politico stories in recent months, the latest of which has Politico laying people off, even though the decisions appear to be nothing of the kind. In June of last year, Calderone wrote a lengthy insiders piece on his former employer. In it, he reported on the “stressful, hamster wheel” environment in which a “handful of reporters receive preferential treatment from company leadership, while the majority are left drifting in a far off galaxy.”

In his most recent story on Politico, Calderone reported that two people have been let go in recent days — Photo Editor Jay Westcott, who opted to go public with the news on Facebook and Twitter and Jess Kamen, a technology reporter. These things are usually quiet matters. But there’s nothing quiet about Westcott, who also went public last September about his split from his fiancé, Madeline Marshall, also a Politico employee, and told his Facebook pals about his heartbreak. After she changed her status to “single”, Westcott snapped, “I took that picture. Take it down.” Eventually he seemed to come to his senses when he wrote, “I am devastated. I have to get off Facebook.”

So two people were shown the door. As Politico’s Editor-in-Chief John Harris eventually told Calderone for his story, Publisher Robert Allbritton has given them the green light to expand and bring on 30 new hires in 2013 — does this sound like a season of layoffs? To be sure, the word “layoff” is a loaded one and HuffPost, a Politico competitor, was sure to use it in their headline. The word, like it or not, denotes a company that’s struggling. On Sunday, WaPo media writer Erik Wemple also questioned Calderone’s use of the word. “Here’s one instance in which terminology matters a great deal,’ he wrote. “‘Layoffs,’ after all, sends a signal that the organization is shrinking, unable to meet its budgets with current staffing levels. If that’s the case here, it’s a giant story…” If not, he added, it’s a “far less consequential story.”

But Politico, struggling? WaPo recently made big offers to Alexander Burns and Maggie Haberman. Both rejected them to stay.

In Wemple’s story we learn that Politicos such as Harris, Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, Haberman, Danielle Jones and Kim Kingsley have all signed multi-year contracts, crushing any impression that an exodus is underway. “He got played by bad sources because a few junior people left,” a media observer explained. “Politico has people come and go every week, so some variation of his dumb and naïve story could run most months.”

Asked to comment on whether he holds any ill will against his former employer and whether “layoffs” was a proper word to use, Calderone remarked to FishbowlDC… Read more

What passes for “exciting” in Washington would be a real snoozer in most other cities. But let’s proceed. Today Politico‘s VandeHarris (a human fusion of Editor-in-Chief John Harris and Executive Editor Jim VandeHei) sent a memo to reporters on new editors in their midst.

The memo announces major promotions:

Marty Kady: For the past two years, he has been the congressional editor. He will now be Deputy Managing Editor for Politico and Editor of Politico Pro (a position formerly held by the temper-filled Tim Grieve, who will no longer be working that closely with humans). Kady will be dealing with Grieve on managing the more than 60 employees who work for that section.

Rachel Smolkin: She has been deputy editor and then editor of White House coverage. She will now be Deputy Managing Editor for Politico.

See the other moves… Read more

This might be three white guys who have faces and pasty white skin, or else they’re a blend of similarities. We hope it’s the latter. Here we have NYT‘s David Sanger, North Dakota Democratic Rep. Earl Pomeroy and Politico Editor-in-Chief John Harris, who was just elected FishbowlDC Fan Club President this morning.

This morning at approximately 9:30 we spotted Politico‘s Editor-in-Chief John Harris (a rather distant, unfriendly bloke in person), reporter Alexander Burns and Mike Allen in the luxurious Four Seasons dining room. They were all dressed meticulously in suits and ties. Allen scampered up the stairs after Burns and Harris, so unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to engage him in light banter. Other publication communications executives such as Beth Lester were spotted in the dining room. They were warm and smiled. When asked, Burns, who would only engage in friendly chatter with us when Harris wasn’t around, said they were there to meet with “Embassy” personnel. Whatever that means.

(Pssst…anyone know what they were really doing there? Write us at fishbowldc@mediabistro.com or Betsy@mediabistro.com.)

It’s unclear whether the latest addition to Politico will be among top-tier Politicos like Alexander Burns, Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen or else out there among the masses.

But on Monday night comedian and actor Pauly Shore attended the presidential debate Monday night in Boca Raton, Fla. with a credential issued by Politico. Everyone gets a credential. It has your photo, name and organization. His said Paul Shore, POLITICO.

Spies tell us…

UPDATE: Politico‘s Sara Olson writes, “Hey Betsy – Pauly Shore was not and is not working for POLITICO. Thanks! Sara” So we asked her what we did her boss: So then why was he credentialed as though he is working there?

Read more