NYT auto writer Maynard leaving paper

New York Times auto industry writer Micheline Maynard is leaving the paper to become editor for the “Changing Gears: Remaking the Manufacturing Belt” Upper Midwest Local Journalism Center.

The Center is a new editorial collaboration funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to report on a major developing story — the transformation of the Upper Midwest’s industrial-based economy to a post-manufacturing one. This transition is a turning point in the American economy with economic, social, environmental and cultural implications.

Maynard, a Michigan native, will be based in Chicago and lead a team of three reporters and a new media producer in the production of long form radio feature reports, special programs for radio and television, and web content. The project will also seek to engage the citizens of the region in an exploration of the region’s past and future.

Maynard has been a senior business correspondent for The New York Times, where her work has appeared since 2000. She joined The Times staff in 2004 as a reporter in Business Day, covering the airline industry.

She was named Detroit bureau chief in October 2005, where she directed the Times’ coverage of the automobile industry. Maynard became a senior business correspondent in 2008, and played a key role in the paper’s coverage of the automobile industry bailout.

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