Budoff Brown returns to Politico as executive editor

Team,

We have been eager to announce the next chapter for the amazing journalists in our Brussels newsroom for a good while now. Today we have news that we are confident you will agree was worth the wait: Carrie Budoff Brown, a POLITICO founder and one of the outstanding journalistic leaders of her generation, is returning to our publication from an accomplished four-year run at NBC News and will take the helm in Brussels as Executive Editor and Executive Vice President this fall.

This is John at the keyboard, but I speak very much for Goli and Kate in saying this is a huge event for POLITICO—a move that will lift our performance in Europe and around the world. The broad and essential nature of the job Carrie is taking means she will have a dual report—to Kate, as the leader of our coordinated European report, and to Goli, as a partner in ensuring the publication in Brussels develops strongly as we grow. Naturally, she will also be working closely with me—as we have done so productively so many times in the past—as we chart the future of this remarkable publication.

Kate and I began this search clear-eyed about what we needed to build the next chapter: a strong newsroom leader who can connect with our large team in Brussels, an exceptional journalist who understands what makes POLITICO distinctive, and someone who will enjoy digging into the Brussels story at this critical moment in European history. We were not short of impressive candidates through this search, though it is hard to imagine anyone combining these three qualities more effectively than Carrie.

Simply put, Carrie is something special and she has been deeply connected to many of the achievements that make POLITICO special. I saw her gifts instantly, the moment I began talking to an obviously brilliant and ambitious reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer in late 2006. This was before we had published a single edition of POLITICO. Carrie knew she wanted in, and I knew I wanted to lock arms with her. Soon enough, she will be back in the trenches with all of us—journalists and publishing professionals on both sides of the Atlantic.

The qualities that make Carrie special, happily, are precisely the ones we need in Brussels right now. Carrie made the transition from reporter to newsroom leader a decade ago, when she arrived for her first Brussels tour. There we saw her signature qualities of intelligence, perceptiveness, passion and a perfectly balanced composite of empathy and toughness. When the Washington newsroom needed her, she returned to the U.S. earlier than she and her family had hoped, at my request. But she long nursed a hope that she might return. Now she will, in early September.

One thing everyone in our publication – and across Washington media – associates with Carrie is this: competitiveness. She loves breaking news, she loves it when POLITICO is first, when we are smartest, when we do more than others to set the agenda. She loves building winning teams and ensuring that everyone is having fun and feeling connected along the way. This we can guarantee: That fire will be immediately felt in our newsroom—and in every newsroom seeking to compete against us.

Carrie is eager for a new challenge, and both she and Kate, who have been long time colleagues have enjoyed reconnecting in this new context—at a moment when POLITICO has grown and matured, and when global political disruption is creating new opportunities for our journalism. Her appointment marks a major step forward in the leadership structure we launched earlier this year, with Kate leading coverage across Europe and Alex Burns leading in North America.

These opportunities are empowered by commercial momentum. Jamil Anderlini—alongside Julia Wehrle and team—has led a strong performance since taking on his new role at the start of the year.

Carrie’s dual report reflects her distinctive talent. Brussels – a vital organ of our entire publication – has at times felt understandably distant from Rosslyn. Scaling across two continents and seven markets, in a way that supports teams on the ground while coordinating across the whole, is complex work. By having a direct report to Goli, Carrie will help ensure the publication is more broadly functioning well and supporting Brussels-based teams to allow them to win. We want to be first in coverage, first in the marketplace and also first in supporting our employees.

Kate and I were sad to see Carrie leave in 2021. But in retrospect, this may have been a case of fate at work. At NBC, she added powerful chapters to her already accomplished leadership story—including overseeing the transition of Meet the Press to moderator Kristen Welker and steadily building its standing with a younger audience. Under her stewardship, Meet the Press with Kristen Welker is now the #1 Sunday show among the 25–54 audience that advertisers most prize. When Goli met her properly for the first time, she immediately understood why Carrie’s reputation is so formidable. So did Mathias Döpfner and Jan Bayer, who knew her from the early days of our Brussels venture with Axel Springer. They are both thrilled to welcome an important new leader into our ranks.

Just as Carrie is something special, so is our Brussels team. This was the place where POLITICO first proved it could extend beyond Washington and national borders. Few believed there was a “there” there when POLITICO launched in Brussels. The town was seen as too small, too arcane, too dry for the kind of political journalism we believed in. Not Carrie—who, from the start, understood that Brussels was not just a place, but a story of power, complexity and consequence. The transformed media scene we see today is not just evolution; it is the result of leaders like Carrie making that early bet, and the remarkable team on the ground today proving it right. Just last month, a panel of top EU journalism voices, including our own Kate Day, gathered to debate the fast-changing media landscape and its impact on EU coverage. What was once overlooked has become a proving ground thanks to what this team has built.

Brussels now sits at the center of a disrupted global order, both a player and a stage. Regulators are attempting to redraw global rules for technology, trade and climate. The war in Ukraine has reshaped defense and energy policy across the bloc. Political realignments are testing the foundations of the European Union and scandals from Qatargate to Huawei-gate have pierced the Brussels bubble, demanding sharper scrutiny and deeper reporting. The job of explaining how the people, institutions and decisions in Brussels ripple outward has never been more urgent.

Carrie is energized by this mission, and so are we. Today, Goli, Kate and I see Brussels as central to every part of our editorial and publishing strategy. As in Washington, our ambition is clear: to be the editorial and commercial leader—helping those in the bubble understand what’s driving the political heart of Europe with more immediacy, authority and style than anyone else. And to use our global platform to connect power centers, from Berlin to Sacramento, to illuminate the biggest stories.

She returns not to something familiar, but to a city, a story and a newsroom that have all evolved. And by the time she arrives and starts setting the agenda later this year, it will have evolved again. What has not changed is her belief in its importance and her excitement to partner with a new generation of journalists to help lead the way.

Our publication—and the bubble we cover in Brussels—is in for something big.

Thanks to Carrie, and to everyone who will support her in this new job.