Tag: Vernon Loeb

Washington, D.C. (June 14, 2018)—The Atlantic has hired top newsroom editor Vernon Loeb to be its Politics Editor, editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg and TheAtlantic.com editor Adrienne LaFrance announced today. “We have ambitious goals for our politics and national security coverage leading up to 2020,” said Goldberg. “An editor of Vernon’s skill, experience and proven leadership abilities will help us achieve our goals.” Under the leadership of Goldberg, LaFrance, and Loeb, The Atlantic will continue to expand its distinctive and highly-sought-after reporting on the White House, federal agencies, national security, Congress, and the culture of the capital. Loeb’s first priorities will be to build up reporting teams covering Congress and the midterm elections, and reporters covering the White House and national security. Loeb has spent his career as a reporter and editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Houston Chronicle. As a foreign correspondent at The Inquirer, he covered Tiananmen Square, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, and the first Gulf War. Loeb succeeds Yoni Appelbaum, who has been tapped to oversee The Atlantic’s forthcoming Ideas section. Appelbaum guided The Atlantic’s urgent and sophisticated coverage of the 2016 election and the first year of the Trump presidency. Politics is a key focus in The Atlantic’s expansion this year—which, already underway, will see the company add 100 new staff and investments across its divisions and platforms. In the newsroom, The Atlantic also recently announced the opening of a San Francisco bureau and in March debuted a new Family section.

Houston Chronicle Managing Editor Vernon Loeb -- who led the newsroom through Hurricane Harvey and an investigation of the state's special education program -- has been named politics editor of The Atlantic in Washington, D.C. The Chronicle's coverage for Harvey in 2017 and the special education investigation in 2016 were named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Loeb, 62, joined the Chronicle in 2014 from the Washington Post, where he had been metro editor. On the morning of Sunday, August 27, Houston Chronicle Managing Editor Vernon Loeb wrote in an email to the entire newsroom: "We are heading into a severe flooding emergency and everyone on the Chronicle editorial staff is activated." "It was an absolutely breathtaking tribute to journalism, and the power of a great newspaper." Loeb, also a marathon runner, said he has come to love Houston during his nearly five years here. "I have so many fond memories of running the Buffalo Bayou, carousing around Montrose, watching the Astros, eating, editing, and savoring the Chronicle every morning," he said. "My goals at the Atlantic can be boiled down to two pretty basic things: Making sure the writers feel motivated and appreciated, and helping them find the most ambitious stories to tell in Washington and across the country," he said. Loeb began his career as a reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer, then left to become a reporter at the Washington Post, where he covered City Hall, the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency. He then returned to the Inquirer as an editor before moving back to the Washington Post.

He worked for 17 years at the Philadelphia Inquirer, only to leave for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. That news organization is the Atlantic, which has announced that the 62-year-old Loeb will take over in July as politics editor. “Yeah, we want to beat everybody all the time,” says Goldberg, while acknowledging that the Atlantic isn’t going to match the firepower of the Times and The Post. Under Loeb’s management, the Houston Chronicle was a Pulitzer finalist for its coverage of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. There was no other story in town. “Nobody covers hurricanes at this paper full-time, and now everyone is covering hurricanes at this paper full-time,” said Loeb at the time. The magazine turned a profit in 2010 for the first time in a long time, thanks to aggressive digital maneuvers. Now 65, Bradley has sold a majority stake in Atlantic Media to Emerson Collective, the good-deed outfit headed by Laurene Powell Jobs. “Laurene becoming partners with David Bradley means that we can grow even faster,” says Goldberg. “I said welcome to the Internet,” says Goldberg.