NY Times hires Bloomberg’s Merelman to be criminal justice editor

New York Times metro editor Jim Dao sent out the following on Thursday:

Metro is excited to announce the hiring of Stephen Merelman to be our new criminal justice editor, overseeing our talented and busy team covering courts and cops.

Steve comes to us from Bloomberg, where he worked for nearly 12 years as a senior editor for enterprise, the national editor and a team leader for state and local coverage. He handled stories ranging across the world, and across a world of topics, from Venezuelan unrest to Hurricane Sandy to the Newtown massacre. Before Bloomberg, Steve worked as an editor at The News & Observer in Raleigh and as a reporter and editor for newspapers in Alabama.

We didn’t need to stray far to find great reviews. Ellen Pollock, who as editor of Bloomberg Businessweek often published pieces edited by Steve, said of him: “Steve could make a municipal bond story interesting.” Jeanna Smialek, who worked with him on stories about opioid addiction, called him “possibly the best mentor I have ever met.” Adam Goldman, who worked under him in Charlottesville and Birmingham, said Steve “taught me how to be a reporter.”

A child of several states who attended the University of Texas, Steve cheers for the Mets, calls himself a “once and future” rugby player and is, purely coincidentally, a fairly serious bike rider. He starts on Monday, March 21. Please welcome him.

—Jim