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Van Natta will remain based in
Miami, where he lives
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Multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Don Van Natta has left the N.Y. Times, where he was a national correspondent, to join ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine as a senior writer. Van Natta will remain based in Miami, where he lives, and play a featured role in ESPN's enterprise reporting team. He begins Jan. 1. "I'm really impressed with their commitment to hard-hitting, long-form and investigative journalism," Van Natta said. "I've always sort of considered myself an accidental sportswriter, and the platform at ESPN and opportunity there is incredible." Van Natta will not have a specific beat or topical focus, and has begun to develop several undisclosed story ideas. "The man comes with serious skills and we're going to let him play to his skills," ESPN Digital Media VP/Editor-in-Chief Rob King said. Van Natta is also the author of a book on Babe Didrikson Zaharias, and another on presidential golfers (
Eric Fisher, SportsBusiness Journal).
JUSTICE LEAVING FOR MLB.COM: The HOUSTON PRESS' Richard Connelly reported Houston Chronicle columnist Richard Justice "is leaving after 11 years to write for MLB.com." Justice said that the move "is no reflection on the Chronicle, which has just experienced another round of layoffs." MLB.com has been "hiring beat writers and some big names for both national columnist slots and regular coverage of individual teams." MLB.com also employs Brian McTaggart, the Chronicle's former Astros beat writer (HOUSTONPRESS.com, 12/6).
