Editor & Publisher

NEWSPEOPLE

New hires, promotions and relocations across the industry

Newsday has named Rochell Bishop

Sleets of the Chicago Tribune to be its next managing editor, the No. 2 job in the newsroom. Sleets, who serves as one of two news directors of the Tribune, will join Newsday on Feb. 27, editor Don Hudson announced. Sleets has worked at the Tribune for 16 years and in 2020 became the first Black person to be appointed news director, one of the top three jobs in that newsroom.

Noah Oppenheim, president of

NBC News since early 2017, has left the organization. Under a new structure, Libby Leist, the NBC

News executive who oversees “Today,” and Janelle Rodriguez, the NBC News executive who supervises the streaming outlet NBC News Now, will both report to Cesar Conde, chairman of Nbcuniversal’s portfolio of news assets. They will be joined by Rebecca

Blumenstein, formerly a senior editor at The New York Times who will take up the role of president of editorial for NBC News and who also will report to Conde. Blumenstein is charged with oversight of editorial, news gathering, bureaus, field operations, booking, “Meet the Press,” “Dateline” and NBC News Studios.

The Hagadone Corporation announced that Clint

Schroeder had been named president of the Hagadone Newspaper and Media Groups, overseeing each of the companies that comprise the corporation’s media holdings in Idaho, Montana, Washington and Hawaii. Schroeder has previously served as president and COO of Hagadone Hawaii holdings and, most recently, as Inland northwest regional publisher for the Hagadone Corporation.

Newsnation has announced that Emmy award-winning journalist and television host Elizabeth Vargas will anchor “Elizabeth Vargas Reports,” an hour-long weekday news program debuting April 3 (6 p.m. ET) from a new state-of-the-art studio in New York City. “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” will feature one-on-one interviews with headline makers across the country and on-the-ground reporting by Newsnation’s team of seasoned journalists. Additionally, Vargas will serve as a regular contributor to Newsnation’s daytime and primetime lineup of news, analysis and talk programming.

The Australian has promoted the paper’s editor, Michelle

Gunn, to editorin-chief, the first woman to take on the top role. News Corp Australia’s executive chairman, Michael Miller, announced her appointment, saying: “Michelle is an outstanding journalist and editor. Her leadership and deep understanding of The Australian’s relationship with its audience will ensure its trusted and newsbreaking journalism sets the national news agenda.” John Anastasi, a veteran Bucks County journalist, has been named editor-in-chief of the Bucks County Herald (Doylestown, Pennsylvania) and successor to Bridget Wingert, the paper’s founding editor. Anastasi, a resident of Middletown Township, will oversee the Bucks County

Herald’s print and digital news operations, which encompass nearly 30 municipalities and seven school districts throughout Bucks County and parts of Hunterdon County. Gerardine Mobley has been named Advance Local’s first VP of diversity & inclusion and will work collaboratively across the organization to further the company’s D&I efforts. Mobley has 20 years of experience in all aspects of developing, monitoring and assessing diversity, inclusion, equal opportunity and compliance policies and programs and was most recently vice president, global senior diversity, equity & inclusion manager at TD Bank.

After spending years leading news sites just over the state border,

Lynne Sullivan has been named regional executive editor of

The Providence (Rhode Island) Journal and The Newport (Rhode Island) Daily News. Sullivan has been executive editor of The Herald News and Taunton Daily Gazette since

2013 and added The Enterprise of Brockton and the Standard-times of New Bedford to her responsibilities in 2019. During her tenure, she has focused on leading her newsrooms in

delivering impactful journalism that matters to the communities they serve.

Postmedia Network Inc. has announced the appointment of

to the role of chief content officer. Clark will be responsible for Postmedia’s editorial operations and newsrooms across the country along with leading the company’s digital subscription strategy. He will report to Postmedia’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Macleod. With this appointment, Clark returns to Postmedia after spending the past eight years at St. Joseph Communications, most recently as senior vice president, product innovation for SJC Media.

C-SPAN has announced the retirement of long-time Programming Vice President Terry Murphy and has named Richard Weinstein, current vice president of digital media, as his successor. Weinstein started at C-SPAN in 1986 and has worked in various departments and positions across the network, including video productions, programming operations and editorial. While leading the networks’ digital initiatives, Weinstein oversaw C-SPAN. org, the Video Library, and the C-SPAN Now mobile video app. In his new role he will further merge traditional television and digital content for use across platforms to best serve C-SPAN audiences. With the retirement of Murphy (a 42-year veteran of C-SPAN), additional personnel changes also were announced. Chief Digital Officer Michael Piccorossi was named vice president and chief digital officer and will lead CSPAN’S Digital Media Department. Working with the digital media teams in Washington, D.C., and Indiana, Piccorossi will oversee C-SPAN. org, the Video Library and C-SPAN Now. Managing Editor Ben O’ Connell was promoted to director of editorial operations and will oversee C-SPAN’S Field Operations, Master Control and Studio Teams, Newsroom Systems and the Assignment Desk. Coordinating Producer Paul Brown was promoted to executive producer, C-SPAN Television Networks and will manage the TV editorial staff and the editorial decision making and programming of C-SPAN’S three television networks. Host and Managing Producer Greta Brawner was promoted to executive producer, Public Affairs Programming and will manage the event producers’ team and politics unit. Paul Orgel, a long-time leader in C-SPAN’S editorial operations was named senior producer, Special History Series.

Taylor Croft has been selected to be The Atlanta Journalconstitution’s municipal reporter. A former intern with the AJC, Croft will now be reporting on the local news team covering the cities of Marietta, Smyrna, Mableton and Decatur, as well as major news in other small cities in metro Atlanta. She graduated from Kennesaw State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and previously reported for Fresh Take Georgia at KSU’S Center for Sustainable Journalism. She helped cover Cobb County for the AJC last year. Jackson Brandhorst, formerly a clerk, columnist, copy editor, assistant editor and interim editor, has been named editor-in-chief of The Southern Illinoisan (Carbondale, Illinois). Brandhorst had been serving as interim editor for the previous six months. For four years, Brandhorst,

21, has served The Southern through an array of newsroom duties while also working as a communications student at Southern Illinois University, majoring in radio, television and digital media, minoring in journalism, specializing in media industries and pursuing a master’s degree.

Indira Lakshmanan, an awardwinning journalist who has reported from more than 80 countries, has joined The Associated Press to lead the global enterprise team. Lakshmanan, who was most recently the senior executive editor and vice president for news and features at National Geographic Media, will lead AP’S multimedia global enterprise team and collaborate with bureaus and verticals around the world, including data, investigative and beat reporters, to produce deeply reported narratives, ambitious accountability journalism, visually arresting magazine-style packages, surprising immersive storytelling and sophisticated explainers and analyses for all platforms.

Susan Ellis has been named chief financial officer for Wick Communications. Wick has media operations in 13 western states, and Ellis said addressing the challenges of community newspapers and how Wick has approached that is a big part of what drew her to the position. Ellis was the CFO for Westland Engineering & Environmental Services in Tucson for six years and was vice president and controller for Equity Title Agency in the Phoenix area for nine years, where she grew her experience in banking, real estate and cybersecurity.

The Associated Press has named four new assistant news directors.

Adam Kealoha Causey, in Dallas, is the assistant news director for Texas and Oklahoma. Gillian Flaccus, in

Portland, Oregon, is the assistant news director for the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, Idaho,

Alaska and Hawaii). Amy Forliti, in Minneapolis, is the assistant news director for the Midwest (Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri).

Roger Schneider, in Chicago, is the assistant news director for the Great Lakes (Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin).

Digital publisher

G/O Media has hired veteran journalist and media exec Merrill

Brown as editorial director. In this role, Brown will oversee the newsrooms and coverage of all G/O Media properties, which include Gizmodo, The Onion, The A.V. Club, Jezebel and Deadspin. Brown reports directly to CEO

Jim Spanfeller.

Variety has hired award-winning journalist Tatiana Siegel as executive editor, film & media. In her new post, Siegel will help guide Variety’s coverage of the film and media business, as well as write covers, features, analysis pieces and investigative stories. Siegel most recently worked as a senior writer for Rolling Stone and previously served as executive film editor at

The Hollywood Reporter.

Cox Enterprises has announced the appointment of three new members to its board of directors: Barbara

Kennedy Harty from the James M. Cox Foundation; Grace Lieblein, retired vice president of global quality at General Motors Company; and Troy

D. Taylor, founder, chairman and CEO of Coca-cola Beverages Florida.

The Groundtruth Project, home of Report for America and Report for the World, has selected

Rob Zeaske as its CEO and president, following a national search launched last summer. This is a return of sorts, as Zeaske was the nonprofit’s chief operations officer from 2019-2020. Zeaske is a seasoned executive and social entrepreneur who has rapidly grown multiple mission-driven organizations, most notably having served for more than a decade as CEO of Second Harvest,

one of the nation’s largest hunger relief and nutrition organizations. He most recently served as the director of Harvard Business School’s Social Enterprise Initiative.

Vinod Sreeharsha has joined the Miami Herald to cover technology news and trends, emerging companies and the South Florida economy. A San Jose, California, native, Sreeharsha has worked over 15 years covering business, finance and politics in Latin America. His articles have appeared in a range of American and international media.

MSNBC is expanding Hallie Jackson’s daily anchoring duties on streaming as the network retools its weekday and weekend lineups. Jackson, who had recently been anchoring an hourlong program on cable at 3 p.m., will now focus solely on her streaming show, picking up an extra hour while hosting a show on “NBC News Now” that will run from 5 to 7 p.m. on weekdays starting on Feb. 13, NBC News Executive Vice President Janelle Rodriguez wrote in a memo to network staff.

Public Agenda, a research-toaction non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening democracy, has announced that

Mizell Stewart III has joined the organization’s board of directors. Stewart is president and CEO of Emerging Leaders, LLC, a leadership development consulting firm serving clients in the U.S. and Canada. He is also a member of the adjunct faculty of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. For over six years, he served in senior roles at Gannett and the

USA TODAY Network, including vice president of News Performance, Talent, and Partnerships.

Hiram E. Jackson, chief executive officer of Real Times Media, has announced that veteran marketing executive Cathy Nedd has joined the company as president of the Real

Times Media News Group, a division of RTM’S conglomerate that oversees the organization’s news brands in Michigan, Illinois, Georgia and Pennsylvania, including the nation’s most iconic nameplates, the Michigan Chronicle, Chicago Defender, Atlanta Daily World, Atlanta Tribune and the New Pittsburgh Courier. “I am honored and excited to return to the Real

Times Media family in this role,” said Nedd. Rejoining the company, Nedd previously served as chief operating officer and associate publisher of the Michigan Chronicle.

Peter Frank has been named editor of the Green Bay (Wisconsin) Pressgazette. Frank, who previously oversaw coverage of breaking and trending news in Green Bay and at other sites in the USA TODAY Network-wisconsin, will lead local news coverage at the Press-gazette and serve as the primary contact for readers and Green Bay-area community leaders. Frank has held a variety of positions during his 23-year career at the Press-gazette.

The Wall Street Journal has announced a new video leadership team. Vaughn Sterling has joined the staff as senior executive producer, features and explainers, backfilling

Adam Banicki’s former role. Ben Weltman is now deputy head of video and will add to his editorial duties the oversight of all production, operations and finance for the department.

Christina Vallice, as senior executive producer, will now oversee all news production, International teams and specials. Adam Banicki, who recently took over as senior executive producer of Youtube, will focus on this platform in a way that The Wall Street Journal has never done before. Joanna Stern will continue to report to Amanda Wills, head of video, as executive editor, video, and senior personal technology columnist. Dan Rosen is now vice president of video and audio strategy and studios.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has named Rodney

Mahone to the new position of chief revenue officer. He will be responsible for expanding

Cop’s content advertising revenue while innovating to develop new products and partnerships, including philanthropic support, that enable

COP to expand its services to the social sector. Mahone previously served as managing director of The Pivot Fund, a venture philanthropy organization dedicated to investing $500 million into independent BIPOCLED community news. He previously held leadership positions at Mcclatchy for 13 years, most recently as vice president of local sales and Georgia market president (2020–2021) and president and publisher (2010-2020).

The Philadelphia Inquirer has named

Layla Jones as its economic equity reporter. She spent the past year as a reporter on the Inquirer’s “A More Perfect Union” project. Pamela Brown has become CNN’S chief investigative correspondent and anchor. In this new role, Brown joins CNN’S award-winning investigative team, and will continue as a CNN anchor, filling in on the network throughout the week. Brown joins the investigative team following the passing of CNN colleague Drew

Griffin. Most recently, Brown anchored the weekend primetime edition of CNN Newsroom and served on CNN’S Voter Integrity Team, anchoring from the Voting Desk throughout the 2020 and 2022 election cycles. She also served as senior Washington correspondent.

Mackenzie

Warren has been named director of the new Local

News Accelerator at Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. He has been a senior member of Gannett’s news executive team for more than a decade. In his two most recent posts, he focused on news strategy and career-development for journalists. He will bring those leadership experiences to Medill’s downtown Chicago campus, where he will be based.

Sales and advertising veteran Ken Henry has joined the Richmond (Virginia) Times-dispatch as vice president of advertising. Henry comes from Fort Worth, Texas, where he was a vice president of advertising for the Star-telegram, a Mcclatchy newspaper.

Veteran Press & Dakotan (Yankton, South Dakota) Digital Media Director/ Advertising Sales Representative Beth Rye has taken up the reins as advertising director, while longtime advertising director

Micki Schievelbein transitions to semi-retirement.

The Thomson Reuters Founders

Share Company has appointed Mark

Thompson and Nikiwe Bikitsha to its board of directors. Bikitsha is a media and communications professional with 25 years of experience in South Africa. She has worked in various media, including radio, television and digital media. She currently advises corporate and multilateral organizations on strategic communications and content creation. Thompson has spent four decades in the media industry in major roles at the BBC, where he rose to be director general, and more recently as chief executive at The New York Times.

The Herald Journal (South Logan,

Utah) has welcomed

Andrew Weeks as its new managing editor. Most recently, Weeks served as the editor of Prairie Business — a North Dakota-based magazine covering both Dakotas and western Minnesota. Guardian News & Media has appointed Richard Furness as its new chief strategy and business development officer. Furness has been part of the Guardian since 1998, working in a number of vital roles, including as marketing director, director of publishing and most recently as managing director, customer engagement and business development.

POLITICO has announced that Beth

Diaz has been named the publication’s first chief data officer. Diaz brings two decades of experience in making company data accessible and actionable to POLITICO. She previously was a senior executive at The Washington Post, leading all data-related activities at the company.

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-illinois) has joined CNN as a senior political commentator. Kinzinger joins CNN with extensive experience in GOP politics, having recently retired from the U.S. House of Representatives after serving six terms representing Illinois’ Sixteenth Congressional District.

Don Macgregor has joined Bluelena as a senior media consultant where he will lead a newly created consulting practice focused on technology and digital transformation strategies for daily publishers across North America. Macgregor previously was with Mcclatchy, where he served as vice president, consumer marketing and sales.

Peter Bhatia, the top editor of the Detroit (Michigan) Free Press, departed the company in January, telling staff that he hopes his departure will save jobs from companywide layoffs.

Yair Rosenberg, who has been a contributing writer with The Atlantic and the author of the Deep Shtetl newsletter, is joining The Atlantic as a staff writer. Yair is best known for his coverage about the intersection of politics, culture and religion, having covered national and international politics; online discourse in an age of

disinformation and conspiracy; and the omnipresence of antisemitism in our culture. He will continue to write the Deep Shtetl newsletter.

Federica Cherubini has been appointed as director of leadership development of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. She joined the Reuters Institute in April 2020 as head of leadership development. In her new role she will continue to play a key role in pursuing the mission of exploring the future of journalism worldwide, connecting practice and research, and building and developing the Reuters Institute as a center of excellence.

Hannah Alden, a Waukesha native who previously worked as a reporter and editor for the former Hometown News Group in the greater Madison (Wisconsin) area, has been named editor of The Record-review (Edgar, Wisconsin). She succeeds Peter

Weinschenk, who retired as editor in October after more than 40 years with the newspaper.

FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES:

As the Los Angeles Times continues to expand and deepen its coverage of the entertainment industry, new positions were announced with the Company Town team. Veteran film industry reporter Ryan Faughnder has been promoted to senior editor, and staff writer Sarah Parvini has moved from the Metro section to cover the video game industry.

Rebecca Bryant, whose sharp editing has helped distinguish the Los Angeles Times’ political coverage, is taking on a new assignment as deputy foreign and national editor.

Karim Doumar has joined the Los Angeles Times as head of newsletters. In this role, Doumar will oversee the paper’s portfolio of newsletter products, work to improve their reach, create new forms of innovative storytelling and foster close relationships with newsletter subscribers. He joins the staff from Propublica, where he was deputy newsletter editor.

The Los Angeles Times has promoted

Laura Blasey to assistant editor for Newsletters. Blasey has been with The Times since 2019, when she arrived as a Newsletters editor. Over the past three years, she has launched several newsletters and has been the final check on the paper’s biggest newsletters.

Ryan Fonseca has joined the Los Angeles Times as the paper’s new Essential California writer. He was the first reporter to join the Newsletters team full-time. Fonseca was most recently a reporter at KPCC-FM (89.3) and Laist, where he covered road safety, infrastructure and transit in the greater L.A. area. He was also a digital editor at the Southern California News Group and a web editor for Times Community News.

Los Angeles Times’ IMAGE magazine has announced that Keyla Marquez is joining the staff as fashion director at large. She will be instrumental in growing the fashion coverage of Image across all platforms — print, digital, social.

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:

Mary Jo Murphy has joined the Democracy team at The Washington Post as a deputy editor. She will oversee a portfolio centering on the Fact Checker, a signature Washington Post franchise that holds the powerful to account and exposes the origins of disinformation. She will also help shepherd explanatory pieces that assist readers in understanding the mechanics of how American democracy works — or should work. She has been with The Post since 2018.

Anthony Faiola will become The Washington Post’s next Rome bureau chief, beginning this spring. He is one of The Post’s most experienced foreign correspondents. During previous tours in London and Berlin, he spent nearly a decade covering the Vatican, building sources and expertise on a beat that will be a big part of his portfolio in Rome. He has also devoted years to covering global migration, an issue that will be central to his responsibilities in covering Italy and its place as a gateway to Europe.

Emma Grazado has joined The Washington Post as its first social media coach. In this new role, she will work to boost connections between reporters and new audiences using social media. She will provide group and individual training on best practices for building trust, affinity and habit in the changing landscape of social platforms. Grazado previously worked as an audience editor at USA TODAY and an editorial intern at NPR.

The Washington

Post announced the appointment of

Venkatesh Varalu as vice president, data and analytics. In this role, he will lead a team responsible for data and analytics across the news organization. He will report to Chief Financial Officer Steve Gibson. Varalu joined The Post in 2014 and most recently served as director

of digital analytics, spearheading initiatives that ensure data is accessible and actionable.

Ali Pannoni has become The Washington Post’s talent and community editor. In this role, she will help reimagine the paper’s community page and work with editors and reporters to engage the paper’s digital audience in conversation. She was a pioneer of The Post’s presence on Snapchat and is an expert developing and curating journalism for Instagram Stories. Before joining The Post, she wrote and produced stories for

U.S. News & World Report’s site, concentrating on education and consumer reporting, for more than four years.

David Ovalle, who had a distinguished two-decade run chronicling the characters and crimes of South Florida, is joining The Washington Post’s Health and Science team to cover opioids and other aspects of America’s pressing substance-abuse crisis.

During 20 years as a crime and justice reporter for the Miami Herald, Ovalle reported on crime, courts and natural disasters — just about everything Florida can throw at a journalist.

The Washington Post’s opinion section has added four key hires. Amanda

Katz joins as editor and is based in Washington, D.C. Previously, Katz was part-time editor at The Post.

Damir Marusic also joins as editor, based in Washington, D.C. Since 2018, Marusic has been a senior fellow at The Atlantic Council. Duncan Mavin joins as senior editor and is based in London. Previously, he served as the Europe financial editor for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. Bina Venkataraman joins as a columnist to write about the future and is based in Washington, D.C. Previously, Venkataraman served as editorial page editor of The Boston Globe, as well as its editor-at-large and a fellow at New America.

Evan Hill has joined the Investigative Unit at The Washington Post as a member of the Rapid Response Team. He joins the paper from The New York Times, where he shared in two Pulitzer Prizes, two George Polk awards and two Emmys for work that combined traditional reporting with open-source methods and techniques.

Dan Rosenzweig-ziff has joined The Washington Post’s General Assignment desk, where he will cover breaking news and write of-the-moment features. He is a 2021 Metro desk intern who reported for The Post on contract from Europe during the start of the Ukraine war in 2022.

Chico Harlan, one of The Washington Post’s distinguished foreign correspondents, has joined the paper’s Climate team as its first global climate correspondent. In this new role, he will traverse Europe, Africa and the Middle East to uncover the most important stories about how global warming and environmental change are affecting people and societies.

As part of the Climate team’s ongoing expansion at The Washington

Post, several staffers have taken on new roles over the past year. Michael

Birnbaum has joined the Climate team to cover climate solutions, innovations and geopolitics. Brady

Dennis has moved to Durham, North Carolina, to become a domestic climate correspondent, focused primarily on the South and Southeast. Darryl Fears, who is on a Nieman fellowship at Harvard University until the end of May, will return this summer to cover environmental justice. This beat investigates the intersection of government policy and pollution in communities in the United States and the world. Dino Grandoni, who covers wildlife, biodiversity and other climate and environmental subjects, recently relaunched Animalia, a column exploring the strange and fascinating world of animals and the ways in which we appreciate, imperil and depend on them. Sarah Kaplan has moved to a new beat covering climate science and the effects of climate change on people across the world — as well as humanity’s response. Josh Partlow has moved to Olympia, Washington, to serve as a domestic climate correspondent covering the West. Two members of the paper’s Capital Weather Gang,

Jason Samenow and Kasha Patel, also joined the Climate section. As global weather editor, Samenow leads the weather pod’s national and international coverage of weather science and extreme events. Patel continues to cover scientific findings about weather and climate.

Evan Bretos has joined The Washington Post as director of special newsroom initiatives and partnerships. He joins The Post from Meta, where he advised local subscription partners on their content and subscriber acquisition strategies as they pertained to Meta’s products.

CONTENTS

en-us

2023-02-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-02-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://editorandpublisher.pressreader.com/article/281543705064219

Editor and Publisher