The following excerpt was sent out from USA Today:
Nicole Carroll
USA TODAY Editor-in-Chief Nicole Carroll will step down on May 1 after leading the news organization for more than five years.
Carroll was named to the position in February 2018 after leading Pulitzer prize-winning coverage at The Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Carroll, who is also Gannett’s President of News, championed greater diversity, equity and inclusion at USA TODAY. Under her leadership, USA TODAY hired more journalists of color and in 2020 announced plans to add or reassign journalists to 20 new beats to expand coverage of inequities in the U.S.
USA TODAY also became a majority-female newsroom in 2021 with Carroll at the helm.
Michael McCarter
While the company conducts a national search for Carroll’s replacement, Michael McCarter has been named interim editor-in-chief, in addition to his duties as managing editor of standards and ethics and Opinion.
Carroll said she plans to stay in journalism and hopes to share more details on her next steps soon.
Prior to joining USA TODAY, Carroll spent nearly 20 years at the Republic.
Carroll first joined the Phoenix-based newspaper in 1999 as a breaking news editor and was named executive editor in 2008. She went on to become editor and vice president of news in 2015.
The Republic staff was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News twice under Carroll.
Carroll also acted as southwest regional editor for several USA TODAY Network properties while with the Republic. Previously, she held reporting and editing roles at the El Paso Times and the East Valley (Mesa, Arizona) Tribune. She also worked as a graphics reporter at USA TODAY in the 1990s.
Carroll was named 2017 Benjamin C. Bradlee “Editor of the Year” by the National Press Foundation and since 2018 has been a member of the Pulitzer Board, which presides over the judging process.
Carroll graduated from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1991 and went on to earn a master’s degree from Georgetown University in 1996.
Carroll’s departure comes as Gannett and other media companies face a decline in advertising revenue and other challenges in the broader economy.
