Longtime Times Editor Named Politico Executive Rick Berke, a longtime political correspondent and senior editor at The New York Times, was appointed executive editor of Politico on Thursday, in what Politico described as a testament to its influence and growth. Mr. Berke, 55, will work closely with John Harris, the editor in chief of Politico, and effectively succeed Jim VandeHei, the former executive editor who became chief executive of Politico and its new sibling Web site Capital New York this month. Mr. Berke will start at Politico on Dec. 2, Mr. Harris said. The appointment startled staff members at The Times and Politico, given the sharp-elbowed competition between the news organizations. Mr. Berke is the most senior Times staff member to join Politico, which is based in Arlington, Va., and is owned by Robert Allbritton. Mr. Harris, in a telephone interview, called Mr. Berke "one of the great newsroom leaders of our generation." He said the hiring was a sign of Politico's ambitions ("that we want to recruit and attract someone of Rick's caliber") and its achievements over nearly seven years ("that someone of Rick's caliber would want to come help us"). In a telephone interview, Mr. Berke said he had admired how Politico "started from scratch and became a journalistic powerhouse." He said he hoped to help raise the news organization to "even greater heights." Mr. Berke's departure is one of several moves by Times staff members to digital media companies this year. Nate Silver, whose FiveThirtyEight blog was licensed by The Times in 2010, joined ESPN in the summer; Howard Beck, an N.B.A. beat reporter, joined Bleacher Report last month and David Pogue, a longtime technology columnist, announced on Monday that he would join Yahoo. Mr. Berke joined The Times in 1986 as a Washington bureau reporter and editor. He covered four consecutive presidential campaigns and held one of the highest-profile reporting posts at the newspaper, national political correspondent. In 2005, after a period as Washington editor, he moved to New York and joined the senior leadership of The Times; for several years, he was the assistant managing editor who helped produce the front page each weekday. More recently, he was national editor; an assistant managing editor with oversight of features and politics; and, for the last eight months, senior editor and director of video content development. Jill Abramson, the executive editor of The Times, said in an internal memorandum that Mr. Berke had been "a newsroom treasure in so many important roles here" and "a great colleague and friend to so many of us." Ms. Abramson has not named a successor to Mr. Berke in the growing video department, where he had been helping to conceive of new Web video series.