NBC News hires Long as a senior editor

Senior executive editor of NBC News Digital Tom Namako and managing editor of enterprise Julie Shapiro just shared the following internal memo:

Hi all,

We’re excited to announce that Colleen Long is joining NBC News Digital as a senior editor on the Enterprise team, beginning Jan. 27.

Colleen joins us from The Associated Press, where she was most recently White House correspondent, focusing on domestic policy issues including immigration and law enforcement. She has covered some of the most significant stories of the past two decades as a reporter and editor at the AP, including the Jan. 6 insurrection, the fall of Roe v. Wade and the debate over police reform. As the AP’s Homeland Security correspondent in 2019, she was part of the Pulitzer Prize finalist team that exposed the harms of the Trump administration’s migrant family separation policy.

Colleen also ran the AP’s national law enforcement coverage under the Biden and first Trump administrations, leading coverage of the legal effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election and the Capitol riot that followed. She edited investigations that revealed correctional officers abusing women at a federal prison, police extensively using force against children, and federal executioners sanitizing their descriptions of problematic deaths. Before Washington, Colleen was a longtime criminal justice reporter in New York for the AP, where she also briefly led the New York City bureau.

Her accolades include a Newswomen’s Club of New York feature writing award for “Babies Behind Bars,” a piece about whether mothers should do time in prison with their newborns, and a Deadline Club spot news award for her vivid account of a doctor who opened fire on his colleagues at a New York hospital.

Colleen is also the author, with Rebecca Little, of “I’m Sorry for My Loss,” a book about reproductive health and pregnancy loss post-Roe, which was published last fall.

In addition to Washington and New York, Colleen has reported from New Orleans, Denver, Puerto Rico and Mexico City, and she is fluent in Spanish.

Colleen brings a wealth of expertise and experience in covering law enforcement, national security and politics to NBC News Digital, along with a knack for sharp story ideas and strong writing. Colleen will manage several reporters on the Enterprise team and will work closely with managing editor Julie Shapiro and senior editor Cassi Feldman to lead the team, and the newsroom overall, in developing groundbreaking investigations and features on major newsmakers, institutions and storylines.

Colleen will be based in Washington, where she lives with her husband, who is also a journalist, and their two children. She will report to Julie.