January 22, 2015

Garrett Graff, the former editor-in-chief of Washingtonian magazine, will be editor of Politico Magazine, Politico editor Susan Glasser announced in a staff memo Thursday.

Graff, who succeeded Glasser as acting editor when she became editor in September, will expand the magazine by bringing “regular new voices” to its pages, Glasser writes.

Graff joined Politico Magazine as a senior staff writer in July. He was the top editor at Washingtonian for five years before that.

Politico has made several new appointments in addition to Graff’s, Glasser writes:

  • Marc Caputo, a political writer for The Miami Herald, will lead Politico’s Florida coverage.
  • Zachary Karabell will be a contributor to Politico Magazine. He is a former columnist for The Atlantic and Slate.
  • Matt Latimer, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, will be a contributor to Politico Magazine.
  • Bill Scher, co-host of “the DMZ,” will be a contributor to Politico Magazine.
  • Nancy Scola, formerly a correspondent for the Atlantic and the Washington Post, will be a contributor at Politico Magazine.
  • Emily Thorson, a professor at George Washington University, will be a columnist for Politico Magazine.

Here’s the memo:

All—some big news today about Politico’s expansion, both here in Washington and nationally. First, a major national move, the start of our growth plan into the states: Marc Caputo, The Miami Herald’s well-wired political writer, will join us next month to lead our Florida coverage. Marc grew up in Key West and has a contagious passion for chronicling the Sunshine State’s political intrigue along with its consequential policy experiments. He’ll be writing a daily Florida Playbook, as well as leveraging his unique knowledge and contacts to help us cover former Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio, and the politics of one of the country’s key swing states. A veteran of the Herald since 2003, Marc is known for his “Caputo Cam” videos from the state Capitol in Tallahassee and his strong reporting; he helped expose campaign-finance scandals that led to two federal convictions.

Here at Rosslyn Politico central, Garrett Graff will take over as editor of Politico Magazine. The former editor in chief of Washingtonian magazine, Garrett has stepped in as acting editor since Blake and I took on our new responsibilities – and the great news for Politico is that he’s been doing such a good job we’ve persuaded him to keep doing it. Garrett, who signed up as a senior staff writer for the magazine earlier this year after an excellent run at Washingtonian, is an accomplished writer and historian (his next book, on Cold War era security on the home front, has already been optioned by Hollywood), and he shares our big vision for the magazine as a home for ambitious long form reporting and writing about the people, ideas and institutions driving American politics. The magazine, which celebrated its first birthday in November, was just recognized as a National Magazine Award finalist for general excellence among general-interest magazines and for its website, and Garrett will be expanding it by bringing regular new voices onto its pages as well.

New contributing editors to the magazine we’re announcing today include: Zachary Karabell, an economist and historian who’s written a dozen books, including most recently, “The Leading Indicators: A Short History of the Numbers That Rule Our World,” and is a former columnist for The Atlantic and Slate; Matt Latimer, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld and the author of the bestselling memoir, “Speech-Less: Tales of a White House Survivor,” who is currently a partner at the DC media consultancy, Javelin; Bill Scher, a veteran Washington writer at the Campaign for America’s Future and co-host of the Bloggingheads.tv show “The DMZ”; Nancy Scola, a former tech and politics correspondent for the Atlantic and the Washington Post, and the former editor of techPresident; and Emily Thorson, an assistant professor at George Washington University who will be launching a new column to explore groundbreaking political science research and why voters react the way they do.

Please join us in congratulating Marc and Garrett — and welcoming these great new voices to Politico.

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Benjamin Mullin was formerly the managing editor of Poynter.org. He also previously reported for Poynter as a staff writer, Google Journalism Fellow and Naughton Fellow,…
Benjamin Mullin

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