The Nation, The New Republic appoint new editors-in-chief
This week saw the appointment of top editors at two left-leaning thought leader publications as they gear up for the 2020 election fray.
At The Nation, Katrina vanden Heuvel announced she will step down as editor-in-chief after 25 years and be replaced by D.D. Guttenplan, a onetime intern who rose up to become London correspondent in 1997 and editor at large in 2015. Most recently, he was editor-in-chief of the London-based Jewish Quarterly. Vanden Heuvel, who is part of the ownership team, will become editorial director and hang onto her position as publisher.
Things may finally be calming down at The New Republic, where acting Editorial Director Chris Lehmann was officially anointed the editor-in-chief on Monday. The publication had gone through a stormy era three years ago when it was owned by Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook who alienated staff and finally sold to Win McCormack.
McCormack appointed Hamilton Fish as publisher and editorial director, but Fish was forced to step down in November 2017 amid allegations of sexual harassment.
Elsewhere, Bill Keller, the top editor at the Marshall Project, the not-for-profit investigative site that won a National Magazine Award and a Pulitzer Prize during his watch, is handing off the top job to Susan Chira. Keller retired as executive editor of the New York Times before becoming the founding editor of the site funded by Neil Barsky.
Chira also had a lengthy career at the New York Times as a foreign correspondent and a national editor and shared a Pulitzer Prize last year for coverage of workplace sexual harassment issues.