NY Times announces staff moves on metro

The following excerpt announcement was sent out from The New York Times metro editor Jim Dao, investigations editor, metro Kirsten Danis and deputy metro editor/politics Dean Chang:

Nicole Hong has moved from covering courts and criminal justice to writing about the economy, including an emphasis on small businesses and technology companies. Before joining The Times, Nicole was a legal reporter at the Wall Street Journal, where she was part of a team that won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in national reporting.

Mihir Zaveri has moved from general assignment reporter to covering the housing beat. Before coming to The Times in 2018, Mihir worked at the Houston Chronicle.

James Barron, one of the best-known and most beloved bylines on Metro for much of the past four decades, will be the new writer of the New York Today newsletter. James spent most of the past year anchoring the pandemic roundup column, a feature so central to the virus tracking pages in the print paper that A-4 became known to some as the “Barron page.”

After eight years of covering Albany, five as bureau chief, Jesse McKinley will become Metro’s roving upstate correspondent, writing about the economy, politics and culture of our sprawling state, from New York City’s northern suburbs to the Adirondacks to Buffalo. Jesse is well suited to the task, having been a reporter on the Culture desk and bureau chief in San Francisco for the National desk.

Michael LaForgia, a reporter on the investigations team, will be joining Metro as an investigative editor in August. Before joining The Times in 2017, Michael oversaw the 10-person investigations department at the Tampa Bay Times. As a reporter there, he shared in two Pulitzer Prizes.

Last but far from least, Nick Fandos, a congressional reporter in Washington, will be joining Metro after Labor Day as a state politics reporter, helping to fill the big shoes left by David Goodman, who is heading to Texas for the National desk.