Good-bye, WSJ. Hello, Roscoe.

After more than 11 years as a newspaper reporter, I’ve decided to leave and take a more entrepreneurial path. I sent out an email to my sources today explaining the decision this way:

Hello. I’m writing to let you and other contacts I’ve dealt with on behalf of the Wall Street Journal over the years know that this will be my last week at the paper. I’m leaving to co-found Roscoe Labs, a journalism startup developing a mobile-based news platform.

I told my editors last week that I’m accepting a buyout offer the paper had on the table for several of us. It wasn’t an easy decision, obviously, because the Journal is still a very special place to work producing a daily newspaper. I thought about it long and hard, pushing the quarter-end deadline for the buyout offer a bit, as I’m wont to do with every other deadline around here. But I ultimately recognized what the right decision for me was, and now I’m excited to move on to the next big adventure.

For intraday market news after I’m gone, it’s probably best to contact Dow Jones Newswires reporters Donna Kardos Yesalavich or Kristina Peterson. I’ve been collaborating more closely with these two in recent months and have already shared many sources with them. If you’re not among the people they’ve already contacted for their stories, be assured that they’re both top-notch reporters.

As for Roscoe, you can reach me there in the future at email pete@roscoelabs.com. You can also follow our work at the Twitter handle @RoscoeLabs, or get on the distribution list for email updates about the company by sending a message to info@roscoelabs.com with the subject line “add me.”

By the way, the new company’s name borrows from the one that put the R in Edward R. Murrow. We figured that name would be fun, give a nod to core journalism values, and nudge people to see something familiar in a new light. Those are all things that we’re after with this project.

Cheers,

Peter McKay