The Washington Post is expanding its editor ranks as it pushes forward with plans for growth in national and international coverage under its new executive editor, Sally Buzbee.
Ms. Buzbee, the former top editor of The Associated Press who took the helm at The Post in June, announced the creation of 41 editing roles in a note to staff on Monday, saying the positions will increase The Post’s capacity to cover global news as it breaks.
The roles include two new deputy managing editors to The Post’s masthead to work alongside the existing two, one of whom will oversee The Post’s live coverage of developing news. A number of positions for assignment editors, breaking news editors and multiplatform editors will also be created, as well as two roles for editors charged with upholding newsroom standards.
The new positions will increase the number of journalists of color in editing roles, Ms. Buzbee said in an interview.
“A real benefit toward us in a situation like this is ensuring that this will also improve the diversity of our staff, provide career paths across the newsroom for a more diverse group of people, for people from a wide variety of backgrounds and skill sets,” she said.
The jobs are mostly based in Washington, she said.
“I could see some of these jobs potentially being filled outside of Washington, and I could see future jobs around a national expansion potentially that way, but I also think that the vast majority of our leadership is going to be here,” Ms. Buzbee said.
The Post has undergone a rejuvenation in the last decade with the investment of Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and billionaire, who bought the newspaper in 2013 for $250 million. Under Martin Baron, the executive editor who retired in February, the newsroom nearly doubled to more than 1,000 journalists.
Soon after Ms. Buzbee arrived as Mr. Baron’s replacement in June, the publication announced in June the creation of breaking-news hubs in Seoul and London as part of its efforts to become a global newsroom.
“To become a 24/7 news organization, you have to empower people across the globe to be able to make decisions,” Ms. Buzbee said. “I would say that we’re in the process of making progress toward that, maybe not quite there.”
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