After less than a year at the top of Politico’s masthead, veteran New York Times editor Rick Berke has resigned as the publication’s executive editor.

In a memo to the staff, Berke cited differences in “strategy” between himself and John Harris and Jim VandeHei, the founders of the news organization, which they established in 2007 after leaving The Washington Post and grew into a wellspring of minute-by-minute scoops with an intense focus on the sausage-making of politics. “I saw a clear path to help them take Politico to the next level, but as time went on, it became clear that our strategies were diverging,” Berke wrote.

In a separate e-mailed memo, Harris and VandeHei echoed Berke’s nothing-to-see-here tone. But they concurred that Berke, a top Times editor whose hire last October they had touted as an indication of their upstart’s triumph over old-guard media, was on the outs. “For all his gifts, we were in agreement that a vibrant and growing publication must have a leadership team that is fully in sync on its mission and how to achieve it,” they wrote.

So what was that fundamental disagreement? Many staffers, surprised at the sudden departure of the top editor, weren’t aware of one.

But friction had been on display in the newsroom almost from the beginning of his tenure. Berke, according to several current and former Politico employees, tried to impose some of the values of the world he came from — where multiple editors might weigh in, demand multiple drafts, and shape bigger, more ambitious stories — on Politico’s fast-moving, reporter-driven newsroom.

“He wanted to up the game,” said one former Politico reporter. But Berke’s idea of how to do that sometimes didn’t sit well with other editors who balked, for example, at pulling reporters off daily assignments to work on the longer-term projects Berke promoted.

Though Politico staffers describe Berke, a Washington-area native who was a political reporter at the Times for years before becoming an editor, as well-liked, he was known to clash with VandeHei, from whom he took over as executive editor when VandeHei became CEO of Politico last year.

Another sign that Berke had fallen out of favor came in May, in the aftermath of Jill Abramson’s ouster as the executive editor of the Times. At a regular staff-training session at Politico’s Rosslyn headquarters, this one ostensibly on narrative journalism, Berke critiqued Abramson’s leadership style. Some women attending the session pushed back, and the meeting became “quite heated,” says one employee.

Afterwards, VandeHei sent an e-mail to the staff that was equal parts damage control and pep talk. “Everyone, especially those who attended Friday’s Politico University session, should know the leadership’s view on how we should handle this story and issues that flow from it going forward,” he wrote. “We want our emphasis to be on the reporting in the days ahead, not our individual opinions or theories of what went down at the Times.”

That the note came from VandeHei and not Berke himself was seen in the newsroom as an indication that the executive editor had been cut out of the inner circle.

Berke isn’t the only senior Politico employee to make for the door in recent months. Managing editor Rachel Smolkin left in July to become the executive editor for politics of CNN Digital. Reporters have been jumping ship, too. In April, Politico announced the launch of a trade publication aimed at campaign professionals; three of the four reporters named on the press release have since left.

And Berke’s departure might not be the last bit of upheaval. Though they didn’t name the former executive editor’s replacement in the memo announcing the change, Harris and VandeHei suggested that more change — in the form of additions, not subtractions — was to come.

“This isn’t an isolated decision,” they wrote. “We have very big plans for expanding POLITICO here and elsewhere and need in place a leadership team that shares our vision, ambitions and full faith.”