NY Times names Plambeck its media editor

New York Times business editor Ellen Pollock sent out the following on Tuesday:

We’re thrilled to announce something most of you already know:  Joe Plambeck is our new media editor.

Joe is in the enviable position of having already proved he can excel at the job — because he has been doing it so ably for months. Just a couple of weeks ago, when the Fox-Dominion case settled, Joe juggled a live blog, a ledeall and ten reporters from five departments with grace and spectacular results. (It’s no wonder that Joe’s journalism students at Baruch describe him as “chill” in their Rate My Professors reviews.)

He has also built and run our disinformation pod, an important element of our tech coverage. In a way, Joe’s new gig represents a bridge between the increasingly overlapping worlds of tech and media. We want to embrace that reality and Joe will continue to report to Pui-Wing Tam, who will oversee media as well as tech.

“Joe is a tireless editor who sees the intersection between tech and media, policy, politics and misinformation,” says Pui-Wing. “Even though I don’t support the Chicago Cubs, he was a welcoming colleague and always has another nugget to spare about The Times from his years in the newsroom.”

Joe joined The New York Times in 2004 or 2005, depending on whether you believe what’s in Workday. The date is unclear because Joe essentially stumbled into 229 W. 43rd street to do freelance reporting for a book by Kevin Flynn and Jim Dwyer about 9/11 and somehow never stumbled out again. Fresh from Columbia Journalism School, he landed as a news assistant almost by accident.

He became a bit of a NYT nomad, hopping between National, Metro, Play Magazine, T Magazine, the copy desk, and the ombudsman’s lair until Dean Murphy plucked him out of this journalistic maelstrom and stuck him in biz as an editor.

Joe was born and raised in Davenport, Iowa, and graduated from University of Iowa. He lives with his wife and three sons in Manhattan.

Please give him a round of applause as he officially begins his new gig.