Bill Nichols is POLITICO's Editor-at-Large and has played a senior role with the publication since its founding in 2007. He was POLITICO's managing editor from 2007 through 2012 and currently is part of the leadership of POLITICO's new European venture in Brussels. Nichols came to POLITICO after more than 20 years at USA Today, where he covered the White House, the State Department and was a senior correspondent in the newspaper's Washington bureau.

A native of Anchorage, Kentucky, Nichols was drawn into newspaper journalism during his undergraduate years at Indiana University. He began his career at the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger, and was on the staff when the paper won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1983.
Nichols came to Washington – and USA TODAY – in 1984, where he was a general assignment reporter, a cover story editor/reporter and national correspondent specializing in politics. In the fall of 1991, Nichols began covering the fledgling presidential campaign of Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, an assignment that would take him to the White House press corps when Clinton won in November 1992. Nichols covered the White House until 1999, when he moved to the State Department, a post he kept until 2003, when he became a senior Washington correspondent.

Before leaving USA Today to join POLITICO, Nichols often was the newspaper's lead writer on breaking news stories ranging from the Sept. 11 attacks to the 2004 election night results. He has covered 8 presidential campaigns, 16 national conventions and traveled to more than 30 countries, including covering Russian President Vladimir Putin's re-election in 2004. He also emerged undefeated from two presidential golfing outings with Bill Clinton.

Nichols was a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes in 2009 and chaired the National Reporting jury in 2010. He also is a member of the Steering Committee of the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press.