Lydia Polgreen, the editorial director of NYT Global at The New York Times, will be The Huffington Post’s next editor in chief.
She follows Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, who had been at the top of the website’s masthead since its founding in 2005.
So excited that my successor as EIC of HuffPost will be Lydia Polgreen, who I know will take HP to new heights. Here w/ Lydia & her wife. pic.twitter.com/UBiFLuEKl8
— Arianna Huffington (@ariannahuff) December 6, 2016
In Polgreen, The Huffington Post has found a veteran journalist with years of experience and a resumé befitting the site’s vast overseas footprint. Before being promoted to NYT Global, she spent nearly a decade as a New York Times foreign correspondent based in Africa and Asia.
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Polgreen said the job was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
I feel like we’re living in a moment right now where media has to fundamentally rethink its position vis-a-vis power…I think that the election of Donald Trump and the basic difficulty that the media had in anticipating it tells us something really profound about the echo chamber in which we live, the ways in which journalism has failed to reach beyond its own inner limits.
Huffington left the top editorial position at HuffPost earlier this year to start Thrive Global, a wellness startup.
News of Polgreen’s appointment was alternatively greeted with cheers from her future colleagues and mourning from her present ones:
We will hang @lpolgreen‘s jersey from the rafters. https://t.co/LgaWwDDqM2
— Sam Dolnick (@samdolnick) December 6, 2016
Wow! I just told a room full of female journalists the news and they all cheered and said “yay! @lpolgreen is a bad ass.” https://t.co/HB8KnX9rnP
— Melissa Lyttle (@melissalyttle) December 6, 2016
Congrats to @lpolgreen, who leaves @nytimes to be editor of @HuffingtonPost. But we’re in mourning at losing Lydia https://t.co/p1K77LjtL9
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) December 6, 2016
#NABJCongrats to @lpolgreen, who was named the @HuffingtonPost‘s new editor-in-chief: https://t.co/o6w3FPfJUl
— Sarah Glover (@sarah4nabj) December 6, 2016
I have been telling @lpolgreen that I think she may be the first woman of color to head a major publication. Am I wrong/forgetting someone?
— jodikantor (@jodikantor) December 6, 2016
It somehow didn’t feel real until now. (Congrats/booo, @lpolgreen.) https://t.co/mqLLd5GvQX
— Bill Wasik (@billwasik) December 6, 2016
About @lpolgreen —> HuffPo: NYT is full of great, talented, decent folks. But it hurts to lose all 3 in abundancehttps://t.co/82OKu16u31
— John Schwartz (@jswatz) December 6, 2016
One thing when someone you know leaves, it’s another when someone you’ve always wished to know (read:admired) goes. Happy trails @lpolgreen!
— AJ (@ajchavar) December 6, 2016
Hey HuffPo: your new boss is brilliant, fearless, kind, and far-seeing. I miss her like hell already. Congrats @lpolgreen.
— jodikantor (@jodikantor) December 6, 2016
@lpolgreen congrats!
— David Beard (@dabeard) December 6, 2016
Huge, huge congrats to @lpolgreen on one of the most interesting jobs in media https://t.co/Ry8wlu2x15
— Ben Smith (@BuzzFeedBen) December 6, 2016
Yowza. I am no longer @nytimes but sad to see @lpolgreen leaving for @HuffingtonPost. Huge loss. But excited for this opportunity for her.
— Michael Luo (@michaelluo) December 6, 2016
@lpolgreen mazel tov!!!
— Eric Umansky (@ericuman) December 6, 2016
I have been telling @lpolgreen that I think she may be the first woman of color to head a major publication. Am I wrong/forgetting someone?
— jodikantor (@jodikantor) December 6, 2016
