The following was sent out from The New York Times’ Kathleen Kingsbury:
I am delighted to announce two promotions among Opinion’s senior leadership team and the return of a seasoned editor.
Meeta Agrawal
Meeta Agrawal is being elevated to editorial director for Opinion. In this role, she will continue to oversee Special Projects, including Sunday Opinion, and she will assume oversight of Opinion’s graphics and photo teams. Meeta is one of our most original and ambitious thinkers, responsible for some of our most memorable cover stories and big swings like “Postcards From a World on Fire,” “America Is …” and “Generation Connie.” She is also deeply committed to visual storytelling, as each of these projects and our abundance of gorgeous covers and visually forward stories in Sunday Opinion lately so beautifully demonstrate. I look forward to what her teams are able to do in the new year.
Brian Zittel
Brian Zittel will take on the role of managing editor across Opinion. He will direct the section’s publishing schedule, managing the workflow and processes of the department and safeguarding our standards. Working closely with Opinion’s senior leaders, Brian will manage and strategize Opinion’s publishing plan to help maximize the impact of our work across all print and digital surfaces. He will continue to oversee our newsletter portfolio, plus our fact-checking, copy editing and print operations both in the United States and overseas. Congratulations, Brian.
David Firestone
I’m also pleased to announce the full-time return of David Firestone to Opinion as deputy editor of the editorial board. In February of this year, he stepped in to provide editing help and quickly became an invaluable member of the team, writing and editing unsigned and signed pieces. Some notable editorials include one in October about how Trumpism now pervades the House and others on Kevin McCarthy’s ouster and Trump’s Jan. 6 indictment; among his signed pieces was a quick-turn piece on Mike Johnson’s election as speaker and his agenda, which was prescient and widely read. David returned to The Times after retiring from a great run as the executive editor for digital of NBC News and many years as a reporter and editor at The Times, beginning 30 years ago this month when he joined the Metro desk. He also wrote and edited for the Washington bureau, the National desk and the editorial board. I couldn’t be more pleased to have him back at The Times
Congratulations, Meeta and Brian, and welcome back, David.