NYT’s Fed reporter to become deputy op-ed editor

Trish Hall and Andy Rosenthal of the New York Times sent the following announcement to the staff:

This is a very exciting time in Op-Ed, with expansions planned both in print and on the Web, and we’re thrilled to announce that Sewell Chan, a Washington correspondent who in his previous life as a Metro reporter helped start the City Room blog, will be the new Op-Ed deputy.

Sewell is well known for his boundless capacity for work, his enthusiasm for every subject under the sun, and his deep curiosity. He will help inspire an already strong staff to take on the challenge of expanding an influential opinion presence and make it even better. He is an idea machine who also happens to be a kind and thoughtful person, very important attributes for wrangling people from various worlds and persuading them to share their opinions with our readers.

For the last year, Sewell has been covering the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. Previously, he was the founding bureau chief of City Room, the very popular blog he helped begin in June of 2007. He was a pioneer in creating Web content when many reporters and editors still doubted the value of that medium. Before that, he covered transportation and City Hall, and in 2005, he was part of the team that covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Sewell, who grew up in Queens and graduated from Harvard, joined The Times in 2004 from the Washington Post, where he wrote about local government, social services and education.