NY Times reporter to lead Atlantic
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After a yearlong search that took longer than the magazine’s move from Boston to Washington, the Atlantic has picked New York Times reporter James Bennet as its next editor.
“Those of you who have tracked this issue closely, most by now have thought that this day would never come,” Atlantic owner David Bradley said in a staff memo. “Has anyone performed to a slower, longer, later standard than I in my search for a new Atlantic editor?
Bennet, a native Washingtonian and Yale graduate, began his career at the Washington Monthly. He has worked at the New York Times since 1994 as Detroit bureau chief, White House correspondent, magazine staff writer and Jerusalem bureau chief and had been studying Chinese for a planned reassignment to Beijing.
Bradley said he wanted “a profound and extreme talent who led quietly” and that Bennet fit that description.
Cullen Murphy, the Atlantic’s previous top editor, declined to make the move to Washington.
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