Washington Post veteran Howard Kurtz, who the New York Times describes as the embodiment of “insider Washington media reporting”, is leaving the paper to join news site The Daily Beast.

The NYT called the move “a twist few in the media world saw coming.” Kurtz has spent three decades at the Post, and also hosts a show on CNN. He will become The Daily Beast‘s Washington bureau chief, and will lead the site’s political and campaign reporting, with a focus on media and politics.

In a NYT interview, Kurtz said “The Post remains a terrific newspaper, but it’s having to find ways to do more with less, and that certainly affects the atmosphere here.”

He told the NYT that “I want to be more of an entrepreneur online. And that can be hard to do within the confines of a major corporation. This is a bit of a leap for me, but after nearly three decades it feels like the right move.”