The New York Times has named one of the authors of its innovation report to the post of deputy international editor.
Thrilled to announce that @amyoleary, an author of the innovation report, will join International at the NYT to lead our digital team.
— Joe Kahn (@nycscribe) October 2, 2014
O’Leary confirmed the appointment to Poynter from Romania, where she’s speaking at a conference, adding that she’s among the first of the paper’s new “digital deputies.”
In July, New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet put out a call for digital deputy editors in an interoffice memo, which was obtained by Capital. The Times plans to add “a deputy-level editor to each of the major news desks whose responsibility will be to ensure our coverage shines everywhere we publish,” according to the memo.
O’Leary, who helped produce the much-discussed innovation report that outlined The Times’ digital weaknesses and strengths, recently thought she might not even have a job at The Times, as she told a packed house at the 2014 Online News Association conference.
When she learned BuzzFeed reporter Myles Tanzer had obtained a leaked copy of the report, her first thought was, “Shit, I’m going to get fired.”
She was previously deputy editor of digital operations at The Times.
Correction: The headline on an earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the O’Leary had been named assistant international editor. In fact, she was named deputy international editor.
