Automotive News hires Taylor as VP of editorial operations

Automotive News announced a retirement, a hiring and a promotion:

• Dave Versical, 66, has decided to retire. Versical joined the paper as a reporter in 1986 and has held several leadership roles over the years. Most recently, he has been chief of editorial operations, overseeing the flagship weekly paper and affiliates including Fixed Ops Journal, Automotive News Canada and Automotive News TV. He will leave at the end of the year.

• Chrissy Taylor is joining in a new position: vice president of editorial operations. She will oversee all aspects of the newsroom with the specific mandate of making Automotive News a truly digital media organization.

Taylor, 43, has spent the past three and a half years as managing editor of the Chicago Tribune. In that role, she has evolved the Tribune’s news operation to focus on content practices that drive digital subscriptions and deepen engagement with the newspaper’s journalism.

Before joining the Tribune in 2018, Taylor spent 14 years with Tribune Publishing’s Hartford Courant, where she became vice president of digital publishing. She is a 2000 graduate of the University of Michigan. She joins Automotive News on Oct. 18.

• Jamie Butters has been named executive editor. Butters, 52, came to the paper as chief content officer in 2018 after 10 years at Bloomberg News, where his roles included U.S. transportation team leader. While continuing to lead Automotive News, Butters will play a bigger role as the outside face of the brand, conveying his expertise to a broader audience at industry events. He is a regular columnist as well as a host of the Automotive News “Daily Drive” podcast.