The New York Times: New role for Amber Williams

Amber Williams

When Amber Williams was named editorial director of The New York Times for Kids in 2021, the announcement described her as “thoughtful, dedicated, generous, creative, thoughtful and ambitious.’’

Notice “thoughtful.” Twice.

That announcement got it right. Amber is all of those things, and now she is bringing her skills, smarts and, yes, thoughtfulness, to the newsroom’s hub as a senior editor on the new News Desk.

Amber may be known to many of you. She joined The Times in 2017 to lead the reinvention of Pages A2 and A3 in the print edition. It was a role that gave her a 360-degree view of the report. She read-in on everything. Yes, everything.

When Amber took on her role as editor of Kids in 2018, she built on her experience working across the newsroom to produce smart and entertaining work that helped broaden our audience and define independent, ambitious and creative journalism for young readers. She led a collaborative team that showed remarkable inventiveness with story forms and innovative design.

“Amber has a rare combination of creativity, news judgment and management skill,” says Caitlin Roper, who recruited her to The Times. “She is a pleasure to work with, and has really shone in a series of leadership roles here, running two separate teams where collaborating across the newsroom was key to her success, as was concise and engaging writing.”

Since April, Amber has worked closely with Mark Getzfred, Steve Kenny, Randy Archibold, Jerry Gray and Johnna Margalotti on the newly expanded News Desk. She has helped corral breaking news, coordinate coverage with the originating desks, keep an eye on the writing and organization of stories and collaborate with the talented Home Team in keeping the site vital and fresh.

Driving the day, indeed.

As a member of the team that sits in the center of the report, she will play an essential role as we review all of The Times’s story forms with an aim of improving our already best-in-class work.

“Amber is a great journalist who’s risen to every challenge she’s been given with creativity, ingenuity and rigor,” says Jake Silverstein, editor of the Magazine. “We’re going to miss her leadership of the Kids section, but I can’t wait to see what she’s going to do in this new role.”

Before coming to The Times, Amber was an editor at Scientific American, where she ran Advances, the magazine’s news section. Before that, she was an editor at Popular Science and has also worked at Wired and Audubon magazine.

Amber received her master’s degree from New York University as part of the science, health and environmental reporting program and studied biology and English at Boston College, where she worked in a lab dissecting shrimp that had been dead for 10 years. She grew up in the Adirondacks.

In that 2021 announcement, Caitlin also referred to Amber as a “powerhouse.’’

On that point, we agree, too.

Please join us in congratulating and welcoming Amber in her new role.