Before jumping into think tank life in late 2011 (technically speaking, jumping back into think tank life, as I did have a brief spell with the Independent Institute back in the late 1990s), I spent nine years covering the insurance industry as a beat reporter. The first six of those were with A.M. Best, where I was their D.C. bureau chief, and the last three were with SNL Financial, where I was a senior editor with a somewhat more diverse financial services beat.

Through that entire period, I learned to respect the entrepreneurial journalism done by my competitors at National Underwriter, one of the nation’s oldest trade publications devoted to insurance. With a deep and experienced staff and a bevy of awards to its name, NU always was certain to be on top of the action in all quarters of the life, health and property/casualty industries. I always knew that I had to be on the top of my game if I wanted to keep up with whatever developments our mutual audiences cared about.

Alas, the same shifts that have decimated the traditional publishing industry have hit NU particularly hard in recent years, even as it appeared to be mostly successful in transitioning its editorial products to the Web properties LifeHealthPro.com and PropertyCasualty360.com. The first of what have proven to be several successive rounds of restructuring was launched by NU in 2008, when the company laid off 25 percent of its staff and rolled back salaries 10 percent for those who remained. The company’s financial health continued to spiral downward until, three years ago, parent company Summit Business Media (also owners of Credit Union Times, another media outlet we at R Street deal with frequently) filed for bankruptcy protection, looking to restructure more than $250 million of debt and unsecured claims.

Though $140 million of that debt was ultimately wiped clean by creditors, the tough times continued. Ultimately, my old employers at SNL Financial ended up buying Summit’s crown jewels, its Highline insurance data business. And the bad news just kept coming. In December 2011, Summit shut down its Florida Underwriter magazine, which focused on insurance news in the Sunshine State. Having sacked CEO Andy Goodenough around the same time, they brought in former Ziff-Davis chief Steve Weitzner in early 2012. That didn’t stop the bleeding either. A year ago, they shut down print publication of Treasury & Risk magazine and sold off Futures magazine. Weitzner then announced another corporate-wide reorganization last August.

Through all that chaos, even as they saw their pay cut and their workloads double and triple, the staff at National Underwriter continued to produce quality work. We’ve worked with many of their reporters closely to weigh in on issues of concern to us — reforms of the Florida property and auto insurance markets, federal changes to the National Flood Insurance Program, reforms to federal crop insurance, and the list goes on.

Alas, the situation at Summit appears to have grown even more dire. Having parted ways in recent weeks with veteran reporters Mark E. Ruquet and Chad Hemenway (a former colleague of mine at A.M. Best), who departed for reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter and insurance consultancy Advisen Ltd., respectively, the news came down early today that NU had axed five more key editorial staffers: another former A.M. Best colleague of mine, Bonnie Brewer-Cavanaugh, along with Anya Khalamayzer, Maria Wood, and the D.C. bureau of Elizabeth Festa and Arthur D. Postal.

There is no other way to interpret this news than that NU has thrown in the towel on being a source of original journalism. That’s more bad news for the world of journalism, but it’s particularly bad for the business of insurance. For more than 100 years, National Underwriter has been one of the most important sources of news and analysis for the insurance industry, and losing the kind of thoughtful, informed journalism that it has always produced will leave a huge gap. It’s one I’ll feel as a consumer of insurance news, but I’m afraid it will also be felt in statehouses and in the halls of Congress, as lawmakers, regulators and their staff will be deprived of the inside perspective the publication has always provided.

On a personal level, I will always appreciate the counsel and advice that Dave Postal extended to me when I was new to Washington. He taught me a lot about how this town works, both on the Hill and for the ink-stained wretches who cover it.  If we D.C. insurance reporters were a fraternity, then Dave was our elder statesman, a description he’d probably despise. But it was perhaps never more clear than when our fellow competitor — Mark Hofmann of Business Insurance — was diagnosed with cancer. Dave rallied the troops to show support for Mark, having only to say “he’s one of us.” I wish him the best in whatever he does next.

Indeed, I’d like to put the call out to all of our readers, particularly in the insurance industry — if you know of any job leads for thoughtful writers who really know this business inside and out, you’d do far worse than to start with this bunch.

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