Wired editor candidates include Patel, Greenwell

Candidates to become the next editor in chief of Wired magazine include Nilay Patel, the editor in chief of The Verge, and Wired.com editor Megan Greenwell, report Katie Robertson and Marc Tracy of The New York Times.

Past editor Nicholas Thompson is leaving to become the chief executive officer of The Atlantic.

Patel was a co-founder of The Verge and the site’s first managing editor before taking over as editor-in-chief. He also was the acting managing editor for the launch of Vox.com. Before that, he spent four years as managing editor of Engadget, where he drew upon his background as a lawyer to report and explain complex legal situations in everyday terminology — a niche that led to SAY Media naming Nilay one of 10 “voices that matter” in technology journalism.

Patel co-hosts the Webby Award-winning “Vergecast” podcast, and has appeared on CNN, CNN International, NPR, Fox News, MSNBC, Sky News, NHK, G4TV, TWiT, and many others.

Greenwell oversees a 40-person newsroom covering technology, politics, and culture. Previously she was the editor-in-chief of Deadspin, helped launch digital features programs at Esquire and New York Magazine’s The Cut, edited investigations and narrative features for ESPN the Magazine, covered the war in Iraq from Baghdad for The Washington Post.

She is also a co-director of the Princeton Summer Journalism Program for low-income high schoolers, and has written features for The New York Times, The California Sunday Magazine, and many other publications. Her editing work has been nominated for a National Magazine Award and a GLAAD Media Award, and she was part of the Washington Post team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting for its coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings.

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