TIME Announces New Editorial Leadership Team

TIME Editor Edward Felsenthal sent the following note to staff Monday

All,

Over the past few years, this team has built a strong foundation for TIME’s future. We now reach 100 million people across all of our platforms. Nearly 40% of our audience is between the ages of 18 to 34. This month, we not only won an Emmy but also passed one billion video streams for the year. Our cover, guided by the brilliant D.W. Pine, ricochets around the world on screens and newsstands of every variety; there is nothing like it in all of journalism. And we have a print subscriber base that’s bigger by significant margins than that of any other news player in the U.S.

Like everyone else in our business, we continue to move and evolve rapidly. So today I am announcing new roles for many of our top editors, with four major goals in mind: producing more high-impact multi-platform enterprise journalism; continuing to grow our digital audience; publishing a world-class, agenda-setting magazine; and building out new extensions of our brand in events, video and elsewhere.

To help lead us toward the first goal, an exciting and well-deserved promotion: Kira Pollack will become a Deputy Editor of TIME. Kira, by title, has overseen photography since joining in 2009. In practice, she is the driver of much our most ambitious journalism full stop. From A Year in Space (Emmy, print cover, digital video series, two-part PBS documentary) to Firsts (12 print covers, a book, a live event and 45 moving videos—not to mention an exclusive performance by Aretha Franklin), Kira has created an environment in which great enterprise comes to life.

As a Deputy Editor, Kira will expand those efforts—including projects that, like Firsts, connect with audiences across Time Inc. brands–while helping to ensure that we reach for the big ideas every day.

Other top editors taking on new responsibilities:

Deputy Editor Eben Shapiro, while continuing his broad editing responsibilities, will take on budgets and all things revenue-related, as well as staffing and standards. He will also be our primary liaison to other Time Inc. brands and to Time Inc. Productions, where we have an active list of projects building on the success of A Year in Space and our Netflix doc, The Mars Generation. Eben will also run daily meetings if I am out of pocket.

Executive Editor and Digital Director Sam Jacobs, whose keen judgment and high standards have guided Time.com to repeated audience records over the past year, will now oversee the day-to-day operation of our newsroom across all platforms. To ensure that our work is conceived from the start with digital as well as print readers in mind, all story proposals and reporting assignments will now go through Sam.

Executive Editor Siobhan O’Connor will take on day-to-day oversight of the magazine. Siobhan is one of our most gifted editors, with wide-ranging interests and terrific instincts for what will engage readers. From our cutting-edge cancer coverage to the popular “You Asked” digital series, TIME’s health coverage has become smarter and more resonant under her leadership. No one is better suited to make certain that we produce a smart, lively, conversation-starting magazine every week.

Executive Editor Matt Vella, who has consistently brought in ambitious exclusives from Tim Cook to Game of Thrones, will lead enterprise and big acts. Matt is a triple threat: talented editor, first-rate magazine maker, and great digital sensibility. He will of course continue to edit a wide range of our daily and weekly coverage and to work with Siobhan, D.W., and others to ensure that every cover has the greatest possible impact.

Susanna Schrobsdorff, alongside her invaluable work with the sales and marketing teams as Chief Strategic Partnerships Editor, will also become our primary liaison to TIME for Kids, which reaches nearly 2 million children in the U.S. TIME for Kids is one of our most exciting opportunities over the next few years. Susanna will also continue to write her excellent column and help guide our broader coverage as part of the editorial leadership team.

Kelly Conniff becomes Editor of Time.com, and will also oversee our culture coverage. Few people have had as much impact in shaping the voice and strategy of our digital journalism over the last five years as Kelly. She has consistently overseen our most-read digital content, built POY and TIME 100 into major digital franchises, and recruited many of our great new talents. I look forward to seeing where she takes the site next.

Dan Macsai becomes Editorial Director, Brand Extensions. Dan, an immensely creative editor with an entrepreneurial bent, now runs some of most successful multi-platform franchises, most notably the TIME 100 as well as Influential Teens and Best Inventions. In his new role, he will work with the events, sales and marketing teams to launch new franchises and expand existing ones through live events, video programming, partnerships and licensing. Dan will also continue to help oversee the front of the magazine.

Working closely with Dan in his new role, and with Eben and me, will be our PR chief Kerri Chyka. Kerri, instrumental in our annual TIME 100 franchise and an invaluable advisor in so much of what we do, will take on an additional role with TIME developing new extensions of our brand.

Dan Stewart becomes TIME International Editor, overseeing all of our coverage outside the U.S. as well as our weekly international issue. Since becoming Europe Editor last summer, Dan has managed a team of correspondents who stretch well beyond the Continent while keeping our digital coverage smart and sharp—and somehow finding the time to write about everything from Philip Pullman to Princess Diana.

Anyone who is part of a Wednesday magazine close at TIME knows the value of the rigor and focus Assistant Managing Editor Ben Goldberger brings to every issue. In this new structure, Ben will work with Siobhan on print, while continuing to oversee our Person of the Year franchise, Olympics coverage, and an array of other special projects and issues.

Assistant Managing Editor Claire Howorth has been the engine of so much of our coverage these past two months, from Charlottesville to the Harvey Weinstein saga to her own powerful cover story on motherhood last week. Claire will increase our commissioning of outside voices, experts and excerpts, with the goal of continuing to grow TIME’s presence as a leading destination for the coverage of society and ideas.

Paul Moakley will continue partnering with Kira on major enterprise projects, from multi-platform projects to magazine covers. Over the past few years, Paul has directed and produced many of our most successful videos, including his award-winning video of Eric Garner’s deadly confrontation with New York Police, Edie and Thea: A Love Story, and Falling Man in the 100 Photos project.

TIME has been a leader in driving editorial collaboration and sharing of expertise across the company, benefitting our brands and our readers. So I am also happy to report that four of our editors are taking on new cross-brand, cross-functional roles:

Dan Hirschhorn, whose commitment and passion for news have contributed so much to our digital growth, becomes Time Inc. Director of News. Dan is already helping drive coverage across more than a half-dozen sites around the company and in his new role he will expand on that. Indeed, if the News Desk were its own site, it would be one of the 5 largest at the company. Dan will also continue to be TIME’s News Director.

Julia Ryan becomes TIME Director of Audience Strategy, including oversight of the audience teams at FORTUNE and HEALTH, as we work more closely together to ensure that we have smart, round-the-clock coverage of all of our sites. Julia’s judgment, her sense of how to make the best use of every platform, and her recruiting instincts have contributed enormously to our success since she joined TIME in 2015.

Mia Tramz, Managing Editor of LIFE VR, takes on the additional role of TIME Special Projects Editor. One of our key priorities is to do more enterprise, and there is no one more enterprising than Mia. Her creativity and entrepreneurship as Managing Editor of LIFE VR has taken our viewers to Mars with Buzz Aldrin, to Dec. 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, to Casper, Wyoming, for this summer’s solar eclipse.

Jonathan Woods becomes Executive Producer, TIME, FORTUNE and MONEY. In this role, he will oversee not only all video production across the three brands but all of TIME’s visual journalism. As Kira, Jonathan and I have been discussing for some time–and as the photo department has come to do more and more excellent video, we also believe it makes sense to create a single multimedia team at TIME. Jonathan, as most of you know, began here as a photo editor; has led projects from to the top of the world (A Year in Space, One World Trade) to the bottom of the sea (Deep Dive with Fabian Cousteau); and is ideally suited to lead this newly merged team.

These editors join D.W. and Design Director Chrissy Dunleavy; our newly announced Washington leaders, Massimo Calabresi and Alex Altman, who are off to an excellent start these past few weeks; Features Editor Julie Shapiro; and Managing Editor Ratu Kamlani and Digital Operations Chief Ashley Knierim.

We have a lot of exciting work ahead, and I can’t imagine a better team to tackle it.

Edward