The New York Times: Jyoti Thottam named editorials editor, more Opinion announcements

Clockwise from left: Jyoti Thottam, Alex Kingsbury, Lauren Kelley, Greg Bensinger
Clockwise from left: Jyoti Thottam, Alex Kingsbury, Lauren Kelley, Greg Bensinger
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We wanted to share some exciting news today about the leadership of the editorial board and new roles for some of the most incisive and ambitious editors in the department.

Jyoti Thottam will become our new editorials editor beginning in early February, overseeing the day-to-day operations of the board and the journalism it produces. Jyoti is a deeply penetrating thinker and farsighted leader who has steered our mighty Op-Ed team for nearly two years, working especially closely on our health, business/tech and world coverage. She has devoted herself to ensuring a daily report of enormous range, intelligence and diversity — of both writers and ideas — and has been a champion of high standards for the work and healthy work-life balance for her team. Among her many vital contributions, she led both the staff and the coverage through the excruciating ups and downs of the pandemic, looking out for the well-being of her people and working in tandem with Alexandra Sifferlin and other editors on robust coverage of Covid-19 and its impact on society. Our run of pieces on Covid has been probing, varied, impactful, at times surprising and altogether outstanding, and Jyoti’s leadership has been central to that success.

Jyoti came to The Times in 2018 after a thriving career as a business reporter, foreign correspondent and senior editor at Time Magazine. After leaving Time, she worked as news editor at Al Jazeera America, further deepening her understanding of the world and different societies in ways that will benefit our strong international team on the editorial board. She also is about to publish a book, “Sisters of Mokama,” the incredible story of six nuns from Kentucky who trained generations of nurses in post-partition India.

As you’ve no doubt noticed, we’ve substantially reduced our cadence of editorializing over the past six months with the intention of increasing our impact and focusing the institutional voice on issues of the greatest importance. Jyoti is a strategic thinker and excellent planner, often seeing around the corner to news and developments that we should prepare for, and we’re delighted that she will help us sharpen our strategy on editorials going forward.

With Jyoti’s move, Alex Kingsbury will become an editor-at-large for the editorial board and Opinion. He will work closely with Jyoti to provide editing leadership to our board members — something he’s done with great skill and care since early 2020 — but he will also return to writing both editorials and signed pieces. Alex is one of our most creative editors who thinks not just about words but also visuals, graphics and story forms, such as the board’s immersive anti-endorsement package, “End Our National Crisis,” ahead of last year’s election or the video editorial at the core of “Postcards From a World on Fire.” Alex knows just the right moments to bring humor into a piece, add a gorgeous turn of phrase, or lean into wisdom even further, and perhaps most of all to protect the voice of writers in their work. Alex came to The Times in 2018 from The Boston Globe. He is a beautiful writer and talented reporter. In his first couple of years at The Times, he authored some of our most memorable editorials, including the board’s first call for a withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan in 2019. In this new role, Alex will also join Opinion’s special projects team, serving as a conduit to the board to drive some of its most ambitious journalism.

Over the past several months, alongside her editing duties for the board, Lauren Kelley has driven Op-Ed’s coverage of the debate over abortion in the United States and elsewhere. Lauren has approached the biggest questions about reproductive rights and restrictions in America, and the impact on women and society, with a searching curiosity, a hunger for new and fresh arguments, an enthusiasm for experimentation (such as our columnist conversation right after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs argument) and empathy and humility about what lies ahead on abortion in America. You just need to look at our recent report to see the terrific and thoughtful job Lauren has done, such as this past weekend’s powerful photo essay of women who received abortions before the Roe decision. We’ve asked her to take on this work full-time going forward: Lauren will officially join the Op-Ed team on Feb. 7, while also continuing to edit Michelle Goldberg’s column.

Lauren came to the Times in 2018 after working as politics editor at Rolling Stone, and before that, she ran the newsroom at Rewire (then called RH Reality Check), a site focused on reproductive health and rights.

Finally, Greg Bensinger has joined our newsletter editing team. Greg joined The Times in 2020 after a long career reporting on technology and business, expertise he has applied to editorial writing over the past two years and now to newsletters. Our commitment to newsletters is strong and growing, with the debut of Sheila Heti’s newsletter last week that has already gained a following, and we are pleased to have Greg’s solid hands and instincts involved in this important work. Greg will also continue to serve as a member of the board and write on tech issues from time to time.

Please join us in congratulating Jyoti, Alex, Lauren and Greg.

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