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Jonathan Martin (Image via Politico).

Jonathan Martin Named Political Correspondent at The New York Times

POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin is going to The New York Times as to be their national political correspondent, Carolyn Ryan, the recently named political editor announced today in a newsroom memo. Mr. Martin, who was a senior political reporter at Politico, was one the site’s earliest hires.

POLITICO, for their part, wrote their own newsroom memo. which was obtained by FishbowlDC, where they tried to frame their loss as a positive and explained that, although Mr. Martin told them he was leaving for the Times today, they were not surprised by the news. Read More

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Ari Melber

Ari Melber Will Co-Host MSNBC’s The Cycle Full Time

Ari Melber, a frequent television analyst and columnist for The Nation, has been named permanent co-host of The Cycle, where he will join conservative commentator S.E. Cupp, former Virginia Congressional candidate Krystal Ball and the cultural commentator Toure on the ensemble political talk show that airs on weekday afternoon on MSNBC.

“I’m excited to continue and advance my Read More

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Frank Kavilanz Leaves NBC News For NowThis News

Frank Kavilanz has been named Senior Vice President for Strategy and Business Development at NowThis  News. Mr. Kavilanz joins the start-up video news network, which recently announced partnership deals with MSN and The Atlantic, from NBC News, where he was the vice president of strategy and partnership for the past year. Last April, Mr. Kavilanz went to NBC News from ABC, where he had been for the previous five years.  Read More

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Peede.

Jon Parrish Peede Will Be New Publisher of Virginia Quarterly Review

Literary magazine Virginia Quarterly Review has announced it has a new publisher, Jon Parrish Peede, the former director of literature for the National Endowment of the Arts. VQR editor Ted Genoways also named Donovan Webster as the magazine’s new deputy editor, following the suicide of former deputy editor Kevin Morrissey last year. Mr. Webster is a former senior editor for Outside, who has also written for National Geographic, Smithsonian, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times Magazine.

Morrissey’s death left the magazine in disarray and Mr. Genoways faced an audit from the University of Virginia over the management of the publication. The audit temporarily closed its offices and suspended publication. (In response, The Observer published a defense of Mr. Genoways by Tom Bissell, if you’re interested.) Read More

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Mr. Smith (image via Politico.com)

Politico's Ben Smith to Teach BuzzFeed How to Report

A major editorial expansion is in the works at BuzzFeed, the viral content aggregator best known for its panda slideshows, and it will be led by an unlikely figure.

Ben Smith, Politico senior writer and longtime New York politics reporter, has been named editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, the company announced today.

According to the release, Mr. Smith will help the site get into the business of original editorial content, hiring new reporters and launching new content sections.

BuzzFeed’s content sections are currently limited to “lol”, “cute”, “win”, “fail”, “omg”, “geeky”, “trashy”, and “wtf?”. The site recently snagged two writers from Gawker Media, Jezebel’s Whitney Jefferson and Gawker’s Matt Cherette. There are whispers of a redesign early next year. Read More

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Making potions at Pottermore.

Charlie Redmayne Leaving HarperCollins to Head Pottermore

When Charlie Redmayne came to HarperCollins in 2008 to oversee the book publisher’s digital transformation, the move was greeted with fanfare, a sign that the industry was taking a proactive approach to the possibilities offered by new technology for interactive books. Today the news broke that Mr. Redmayne, who was named chief digital officer of HarperCollins in 2009, has left the company for Pottermore, J.K. Rowling’s interactive web site. Pottermore will also be the exclusive retailer for the digital editions of the Harry Potter series, which are not yet available in e-book format. Read More

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Nosowsky.

Ethan Nosowsky Named Editorial Director at McSweeney’s

Ethan Nosowsky has left his role as editor-at-large for Graywolf Press to take a job as editorial director at McSweeney’s, announcing the move today on Twitter. Mr. Nosowsky used to work as an editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux and is also the “consultant for innovative literature” at the Creative Capital Foundation. He has a more traditional book publishing background than some at McSweeney’s, a sign that that its San Francisco-based books division will likely become more aggressive about acquiring work. Read More