TIME Announces Changes to Editorial Leadership Structure To Further Subscriptions and Digital Transformation

Time Editor-in-Chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal and Deputy Editor Sam Jacobs sent the following note to staff Monday.

Dear all,

It’s remarkable what we’ve been able to accomplish together while navigating the many global crises of this past year. In the face of tremendous challenges, professional and personal, your support for each other and the collective focus on the humanity of the stories we tell has helped move TIME forward.

Our journalism has never been more relevant, from our coverage of the historic events of 2020 to the recent “Climate Is Everything” project, the launch of TIME Business and May’s powerful Equity project led by TIME’s BIPOC journalists. TIME100 Talks and our virtual summits have showcased memorable conversations and artists. In little more than a year, TIME Studios, in partnership with so many of you, has transformed from an idea to an industry force.

The incredible work of this team as we pivot through the pandemic is testament to our ability to not only navigate but lead the way through what is sure to be ongoing disruption in our industry and the world we cover.

Today, along with a number of role changes, promotions and new hires, we’re announcing some changes to the leadership structure of the Editorial team to help ensure that we deliver on TIME’s mission of world-class content, global impact and growth as we build toward our second century, and toward our goals of:

Growing subscriptions: At a time when nearly every business is looking toward subscriptions, we are fortunate to have a foundation of more than 2 million paying subscribers across all our platforms. Key to our success will be accelerating this toward our goal of 10 million subscribers by 2030.

Digital transformation: We need to sharpen the strength and mix of our daily digital offering to build audience, engagement and loyalty, as we continue to make the workflow around print more efficient.

Innovation: We need to keep experimenting and taking risks with new editorial products, projects and approaches to storytelling.

Strengthening our culture: We must continue the essential work of bringing inclusivity, transparency and empathy into everything we do.

These changes reflect what is very much an ongoing evolution of our work, our business, our leadership structure and our team. There is much to do, and more to come.

Kelly Conniff becomes Senior Executive Editor, adding the magazine to her portfolio and leading the team of editors that oversees all of our major platforms. The past year has underscored the urgency of digital transformation, and there is no newsroom leader better positioned to accelerate ours than Kelly. She is a constant and creative generator of great and big ideas, with a deep understanding of how to tell stories that resonate with audiences. Her guidance has been critical to every major editorial decision in the past few years, and we look forward to her taking on an even broader leadership role. Kelly, who is executive sponsor of our Young Professionals Network ERG, will also continue to oversee our culture coverage led by Senior Editor Eliza Berman.

Executive Editor Dan Macsai takes on the additional role of Vice President of Editorial Strategy. Dan is an innovative and entrepreneurial leader who has played a huge role in TIME’s evolution—from launching marquee franchises such as TIME100 Next, World’s Greatest Places and TIME100 Companies to leading programming for our incredibly successful live and virtual events (including TIME100 Talks) to serving as executive sponsor of the TIME for Pride ERG. In his new role, Dan will continue to oversee and expand the TIME100 universe and manage our Accolades team, led by Cate Matthews. He will also work to develop and launch new editorial products designed to grow TIME’s audience across platforms, and serve as the primary editorial partner for our colleagues in advertising sales and marketing.

Naina Bajekal becomes Executive Editor. Naina is a singular newsroom leader, a gifted editor who has shown herself to be as skillful with people as she is with stories. She has guided staff and contributors around the world on a dizzying array of topics, while bringing her insight and creativity to special projects including Next Generation Leaders, the Art of Optimism, and the recent Climate issue. In her new role, Naina will drive the conception and execution of the core multimedia packages and projects around which we build our editorial calendar. She will continue to lead newsroom development, expanding on her efforts over the past year to strengthen our journalism and our culture, and we will hire a deputy for this work. Naina, who is executive sponsor of the API Alliance ERG, will also oversee our photography team led by Director of Photography Katherine Pomerantz. Naina will take a sabbatical this summer to complete a writing fellowship, and upon return, plans a move to New York.

Executive Editor John Simons, who has been working with Senior Editor Tina Susman and her team since he joined us earlier this year to lead our Business, Technology and Nation coverage, will now add oversight of our international reporters and editors to his portfolio. Working with International Editor Dan Stewart, and building upon his own experience leading coverage across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, John will expand on the early success of TIME Business in a way that is truly global. He will also help coordinate the work of our teams in the U.S. and around the world to ensure we have maximum impact. Our Business team continues to expand with the additions of Patrick Lucas Austin, Emma Barker, Raisa Bruner, Peter Allen Clark, Belinda Luscombe, Megan McCluskey, and Eben Shapiro.

Executive Editor Ben Goldberger, after more than three years of leading the magazine during a period of success and evolution, will take on a new portfolio. He will focus on new ways for us to expand our reach and impact, including developing a podcast strategy with TIME Studios, increasing editorial partnerships with outside newsrooms and working with consumer marketing to develop more print extensions including bookazines and special issues. Ben will work with our editorial and legal teams on issues around standards as they arise and to maintain practices in general. As the countdown to TIME’s 100th anniversary begins in earnest, Ben will help guide our planning for this milestone. With ongoing leadership from Elijah Wolfson and Lucas Wittmann, he will also continue to oversee our Health and Ideas coverage. Ben will continue to lead and grow Person of the Year.

Lori Fradkin becomes Executive Digital Editor. In her new role, Lori will work across the newsroom to unify all of us in one overarching goal: to make sure we are every day publishing great stories that start conversations, grow and engage audiences and deliver impact. She will lead editors and reporters to make smart decisions about short- and long-term coverage. Since coming to TIME in 2018, Lori has brought in an astounding array of new voices and steered many of our reporters through tricky assignments and challenging edits. Lori is a trusted guide across our newsroom, and our overall coverage will benefit greatly from her insight and vision.

Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Alex Altman takes on the additional role of Executive Features Editor. Alex has guided some of our highest impact and most complex stories since joining TIME in 2008. Working with Washington Bureau Chief Massimo Calabresi and the tireless D.C. team through an unrelenting news cycle and presidential election, Alex led our political coverage, steering work from day-to-day stories to our profiles of the major candidates to Person of the Year and the insurrection at the Capitol. In this new role, Alex will work with writers and editors both in and out of Washington to ensure that we have powerful and original features and reporting each day and throughout the year.

Victor Williams becomes Digital Design Director. With the goal of increasing engagement and impact as we continue to sharpen our focus on the digital experience, Victor will lead editorial design across the site, mobile and social. Channeling his experience and passion for mentoring, he will work closely with Design Director Chrissy Dunleavy to lead each project art director through the process of designing for all of TIME’s platforms and will supervise the work of Graphics Director Lon Tweeten and Senior Design Coordinator Skye Quinn. Victor’s leadership both internally and in identifying inspiring external partners, as well as his immense design and storytelling talents, will be powerful resources in this important new role.

Lily Rothman becomes Assistant Managing Editor, Magazine. In this new role, Lily will oversee the magazine, continuing its excellence, evolving its workflow and increasing its connection to the digital product. Senior Correspondent Janell Ross will also join Lily’s team which includes News Editor Alex Rees and Staff Writer Olivia Waxman. The creator of our successful History vertical and an unparalleled expert in TIME’s own history, Lily is a talented story editor, manager, mentor and champion for our work and our culture—attuned both to audience and to mission.

Elizabeth Murray becomes Assistant Managing Editor, Audience and Operations. Liz has been an outstanding manager of people and processes, leading with integrity and inclusion. She will take that experience with her as she takes on a new and important priority: making sure the essential work of audience engagement, copy editing, digital strategy, fact-checking and production is integrated across all of our platforms. Under Liz’s leadership, we will formalize this approach, bringing together these teams led by Ratu Kamlani, Anny Kim, Brittany Robins and Kim Tal.

As part of this transition, Deputy Digital Editor Brittany Robins, who has been a driving force in our digital strategy, will dedicate her attention to improving our digital product and experience, with particular focus on building subscriptions, which are integral and crucial to the next phase of TIME’s growth. She’ll serve as the primary editorial partner for the product and consumer marketing/subscriptions team as we continue to improve our site and focus on increasing loyalty and engagement.

Elijah Wolfson, who has led our Health and Science teams through the story of our lives, becomes Editorial Director, Health, Science and Climate. Elijah has excelled at telling stories across a wide variety of topics in creative ways, including the launch of the Coronavirus Brief and Climate newsletters, and instilling in his team a devotion to dogged beat reporting and data journalism. He has co-led our Climate issues over the past two years and in his new role will be leading and expanding our coverage across the globe in this critical vertical.

Haley Edwards becomes a Deputy Washington Bureau Chief. Haley has played a critical role in our Washington coverage and has been a guide and mentor to many across the newsroom. Her ability to guide reporters to illuminate complex policy debates through the experiences of people is unparalleled. In her new position, Haley will work with Massimo, Alex and Krista Mahr to continue to grow the impact of our beat reporting and feature work surrounding U.S. policy, with a particular focus on how what happens in Washington affects people across the country and around the world.

Senior Editor Lucy Feldman—who has had an enormous impact on our product, people and culture—will add managing writers to her responsibilities, with Cady Lang and Sanya Mansoor joining her initial team. Lucy is the chair of our BIPOC at TIME ERG, the coordinator of our New Hire Ambassador program, a member of our inaugural Diversity Council, the convener of our book club and many important culture conversations. In her current role, Lucy has had several editorial triumphs: She led the recent Equity project, co-led the Black Renaissance project with Ibram X. Kendi, and wrote two of our recent cover stories: a searing personal essay after the Atlanta shootings and a profile of Reese Witherspoon for our TIME100 Companies launch.

Cate Matthews becomes Senior Editor. Cate has been instrumental in the creation of our new editorial franchises like TIME100 Next and TIME100 Companies, and the expansion of existing ones like Best Inventions, World’s Greatest Places and TIME100. It’s safe to say that TIME100 Talks, the juggernaut streaming interview series we built at the beginning of the pandemic, would not exist without Cate’s vision and effort. In her new role, Cate will manage News Editor Jenni Duggan and Associate Editor Merrill Fabry, whose contributions have been invaluable in growing our major franchises, and work with Dan Macsai to create new editorial products.

Bill Hennigan becomes Senior Correspondent. In the last year, Bill found enterprising ways to cover how the U.S. military is adapting to challenges away from the battlefield: from Space Force to the pandemic response and the vaccination rollout to the rise of the far right. A thoughtful newsroom partner, Bill regularly joins with colleagues to tell complex stories and brings deep empathy to the narratives of people who are living through immense change and challenge.

Arpita Aneja becomes Senior Producer. In the last year, Arpita has developed “The History You Didn’t Learn,” with Olivia Waxman, which illustrates the connection between the past and our present-day issues. Arpita has also edited some of the video team’s most challenging and impactful journalism, working closely with her colleagues in video and across the newsroom, and collaborating with outside editorial partners. Most recently, “Anatomy of Hate,” which Arpita produced with the Marshall Project, won a Deadline Club award.

Anne Most becomes Senior Producer, TIME100 Talks. Anne has excelled as a showrunner and producer who has worked extensively on our breaking news team as well as on our tentpole productions for time.com and broadcast. In her new role, she will produce TIME’s live video show featuring interviews with global leaders, pre-produced profile segments and musical performances. Working closely with Dan Macsai and Cate Matthews, Anne will manage the video team that produces TIME 100 Talks, including Production Associate Jenna Caldwell.

Jamie Ducharme becomes Correspondent. Jamie is an exemplary reporter, contributing important work across our Health coverage. A highly collaborative colleague, Jamie excels working at multiple speeds all at once. Her cross-platform reporting on the e-cigarette company Juul for TIME led to a cover story in 2019 and to her first book BIG VAPE, which comes out on May 25. Jamie has also been instrumental in many aspects of our pandemic coverage, notably including our reporting on Long COVID and on how the virus has changed social behavior.

Sangsuk Sylvia Kang becomes Photo Editor. Sylvia has quickly made her mark at TIME, with outstanding photo assignments and editing for both our international and U.S. coverage, and has brought the highest levels of detail to the security and operations behind such work. Sylvia has also inspired and brought keen focus on visual work that boldly aims to move the needle toward equity. Among her many contributions, Sylvia helped lead the creation of cover images for our story on the farmer protests in India within the “Women and the Pandemic” project and the issue in the aftermath of shootings in Atlanta.

Abhishyant Kidangoor becomes a Producer. In the past year, working from Hong Kong, Abhishyant has contributed work of high impact under extraordinary circumstances, including reporting on the protest movement in Hong Kong, COVID-19 lockdowns, and the devastation of the pandemic in India. Abhishyant will continue to focus on international stories as he helps push the video team’s work forward.

Brian Braganza becomes a Producer. Brian brings a strong visual and storytelling sensibilities to his work, which has included coverage of artists and communities as well as in-depth interviews with newsmakers, often on a very tight deadline. Brian’s versatility across breaking news and enterprise stories makes him an essential contributor to the team as we continue to evolve and expand into new formats and areas of coverage.

Ciara Nugent becomes Staff Writer. Ciara has reported a string of agenda-setting stories on her key beats of Latin America, climate and cities, winning a News & Documentary Emmy and a Foreign Press Association nomination. Particularly notable in the past year has been Ciara’s ability to tell complicated policy stories on Argentina, the Netherlands and Brazil, while limited in travel by the pandemic.

Billy Perrigo becomes Staff Writer. Billy has forged multiple beats covering Indian current affairs, British politics, and in particular charting the changing landscape of tech policy around the world. His reporting on hate speech and misinformation on social media platforms has been cited by the U.K. government and in the Indian parliament.

We are also delighted to welcome our most recent new hires to the editorial team:

Ayesha Javed joins us from The Wall Street Journal as Senior Editor, based in London and working with Dan Stewart and the international team. Prior to the WSJ, Ayesha was a business reporter and editor for Bloomberg and The Telegraph, having begun her career as a financial analyst. Ayesha will help us grow TIME 2030, the 10-year reporting project that Dan and team launched to great success earlier this year.

Whitney Matewe joins us as Photo Editor. Formerly with National Geographic, The New Yorker, and The Intercept, Whitney focuses on producing photography for culture stories as well as portraiture that highlights underrepresented narratives.

Simmone Shah joins the staff as Reporter-Researcher, after initially joining us as an Emma Bowen Foundation Fellow in research and fact-checking. Simmone graduated from Barnard College in 2020, and previously held internships with ELLE and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.

Our evolution will continue. But with our extraordinary team, we could not be more optimistic about the impact of our work and the future of our brand. Thank you all for your dedication, your inspiration and your partnership in our mission.

Best,

Edward and Sam