David Rohde jumps from NBC News to MSNBC

David Rohde, who left The New Yorker in 2023 to join NBC News, is now making his way to MSNBC.

Rohde, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, will join MSNBC under Versant, the new company that will be spun off from NBCUniversal in coming weeks as parent company Comcast tries to separate an eroding cable business from its broadcast and streaming businesses. Rohde, who was one of the first major hires at NBC News after named editorial chair Rebecca Blumenstein, is the latest in a series of NBC News journalists to leave the unit prior to the separation of MSNBC and CNBC.

He will be MSNBC’s senior national security reporter.

Meanwhile, NBC News named Carol Lee, a Washington veteran of investigative journalism, as the new editor-in-chief of national security, while Colleen Long was named editor-in-chief of national security.

Rohde won a Pulitzer in 1996 for his reporting The Christian Science Monitor who helped expose the Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnian War, and in 2009 shared a Pulitzer while reporting for The New York Times about Afghanistan and Pakistan. At NBC News, as a senior executive editor, he had been tasked with overseeing a team of journalists covering national security.

Last week, NBC News unveiled plans to lay off about 100 to 150 employees, according to a person familiar with the matter, as it deals with the media industry’s sagging economy and the looming spinoff. In total, the affected jobs are expected to include between 7% and 8% of NBC News’ employee base, and about 2% of total positions in the company’s broader news operations.

Meanwhile, MSNBC has been trying to recruit staff as it tries to create a newsgathering force that can no longer rely on its corporate cousin. MSNBC has hired NBC News journalists in recent weeks, including Ken Dilanian, Brandy Zadrozny, David Noriega and Vaughan Hillyard. And Versant has hired senior NBCU news executives including Brian Carovillano, Tom Clendenin, Meghan Rafferty and Jessica Kurdali.

MSNBC continues to recruit for 100 positions within the organization.