Wirecutter announces new editorial structure

Ben Frumin, the editor in chief of Wirecutter, sent out the following on Monday:

Team,

I come bearing good news!

Wirecutter’s editorial team has expanded and evolved tremendously over the last five years.

We’ve added nearly 50 journalists. Our audience has tripled. We’ve stepped into several new categories, expanded many existing ones, become far more rigorous and intentional in keeping our catalog up to date, and experimented with all kinds of new journalistic initiatives and adventures.

And there’s much more to come as we continue to grow and innovate in 2024 and beyond.

But while much has changed over the past five years, the structure of our editorial leadership team has not.

That’s why I’m excited to announce a new editorial leadership team that I believe will better meet our current needs — and, more importantly, our future ambitions.

Starting today, four editorial directors will report directly to me and comprise our editorial leadership: Jason Chen, Christine Cyr Clisset, Lauren Sullivan, and a fourth as-yet-to-be-hired colleague.

Christine and Jason — superb journalists and leaders who have excelled as two of my deputies  — will each continue to oversee three to four senior editors and their corresponding coverage areas. They will also spearhead several critical new initiatives: partnering with digital and design on user experience, exploring and expanding into new coverage areas and journalistic initiatives, working with the business side on new opportunities, and much more.

Lauren — a journalistic powerhouse — will continue to oversee our audience team. She will also take on discovery — which we continue to see as a major area of growth and opportunity to reach and help vastly more people — and editorial operations (formerly managing edit). We believe bringing these sometimes-siloed parts of our newsroom together under one strong leader — and finding new ways to structure and run these teams — will help cohesion and communication, and will make it easier to get decisions made, and our journalism published and promoted.

Andrew Kalinchuk — our longest tenured employee, and an incredibly valuable and talented operational and process wizard — will transition to an important new role: deputy director of editorial operations. In addition to overseeing our editorial planning, production, and special projects, he’ll have an expanded portfolio that includes copy edit and photo. Andrew will report to Lauren.

Annemarie Conte — who has been an exceptional deputy and has emerged as one of our most charismatic, creative, and compelling personalities — will see her role as a deputy editor evolve. She’ll manage a small team, part of the broader discovery team, that will conceive and execute a variety of new content experiments. Those will include advice columns, new and existing Wirecutter franchises, tests of buzzy new products, and one-off service journalism pieces. Annemarie will continue to take a leading role representing Wirecutter in all kinds of media. For now, Annemarie will report to Lauren.

Alongside Christine, Jason, and Lauren, we’ll also be hiring a fourth editorial director. This person will oversee three to four senior editors and their corresponding coverage areas. This includes Deals (which, until this editorial director is hired, will temporarily report directly up into me). This last editorial director role is a really big and important job, and we’ll be considering both internal and external candidates.

I’m confident this new structure is going to set us up for major success as we continue to grow and transform this year and beyond.

As always, any questions, just ask. And please join me in congratulating your colleagues on their new roles!

– Ben