Blumenstein to become NY Times deputy ME

New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet sent out the following announcement on Tuesday:

Dear Colleagues,

We’re delighted to announce that Rebecca Blumenstein, deputy editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal, will join The Times as a deputy managing editor.

Rebecca will bring deep expertise in business, technology and international affairs to the leadership of our newsroom, helping us stay ahead of the competition on the biggest stories of our time. She will join Matt Purdy, Janet Elder, Cliff Levy, Kinsey Wilson, Tom Bodkin and the rest of the masthead in pushing our digital transition, helping us improve print, modernizing our editing system, and increasing our appeal to audiences in the United States and abroad. In short, she’ll help all do all the big things we intend to do in 2017 and beyond.

Rebecca will focus on making sure we remain an essential destination for readers interested in business, finance, economics and technology. She’ll build on the work Dean Murphy has spearheaded to make Bizday’s news and enterprise stand out. She will also work with Adam Bryant on our live events business, a specialty of hers at the WSJ. We’ll have more to say about her role in coming days.

A native of Michigan, Rebecca cut her teeth as a journalist covering politics and breaking news at The Tampa Tribune, then at Gannett and Newsday before joining The Journal in 1995. At The Journal, she covered the auto industry in Detroit. She led a team covering technology and telecommunications in New York. She later became China bureau chief, where her team won a Pulitzer Prize in 2007 (not without a bit of rivalry with Brand X, it could be noted). She later became the Page One editor, managing editor of WSJ.com and international editor before being named deputy executive editor in 2013.

Rebecca is thoughtful, collaborative, competitive and a delightful colleague. We’re confident you’ll agree she’ll make a great member of the newsroom team. So please join us in welcoming her to The Times.