July 23, 2013

Matt Purdy, who leads the investigative reporting team, will become an assistant managing editor charged with making enterprise projects “a daily reality for our readers.” Marc Lacey will be an associate managing editor in charge of the paper’s weekend report.

Full memo from Executive Editor Jill Abramson follows:

Dear Colleagues,

We have two new exciting appointments to share with you.

Dean and I are thrilled that Matt Purdy will become an Assistant Managing Editor, a masthead job with responsibilities that will span across all desks and sections. We have long placed a special kind of emphasis on our stories behind the story, our exclusive investigative pieces, our long term enterprise projects — they are our hallmark. We’ve now asked Matt to be responsible for making our commitment to this kind of story telling a daily reality for our readers. He will scout out these stories across the paper and across platforms —- in Washington, Culture, Sports etc. — and work with desk heads, Dean, Susan and me to help reach our goal of having at least one rich, fresh read on the front page each day. Matt will take charge of the variety and flow of these stories. Along with the phenomenal Christine Kay and Paul Fishleder, Matt will continue to be involved in the paper’s most important digging as head of Investigations.

Matt has been our investigations editor for nine years and along with Christine and Paul built a formidable team, one which has won five Pulitzers for some of the paper’s most powerful work. Matt came to the paper in 1993 and spent many years on Metro as a reporter, a columnist, and deputy editor. Before coming to The Times, Matt was a local reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer as well as a Washington correspondent.

Alison Mitchell’s ascension to National Editor made urgent the task of finding a weekend editor. Lucky for us, Marc Lacey has accepted the job and will be an Associate Managing Editor in charge of our weekend report. Marc has been a brilliant deputy on foreign and, to our amazement and delight, has found that he adores editing. As most of you know, Marc has been a White House correspondent, a foreign correspondent in Nairobi and Mexico City as well as a stint in Iraq. He blazed new trails for the national desk as our first, extremely prolific, Phoenix bureau chief. His collegiality, smarts and leadership will make him a superb steward of our weekend news report. He has a wonderful staff, strengthened in so many ways over the years by Alison, to support him.

Fondly,

Jill

Previously: NYT announces leadership changes

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Andrew Beaujon reported on the media for Poynter from 2012 to 2015. He was previously arts editor at TBD.com and managing editor of Washington City…
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