Meacham succeeds Mark Whitaker, who becomes Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of New Ventures of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI), the digital division of the Washington Post Company. In this new role, Whitaker will take charge of developing a range of new Washington Post Company Web sites. Whitaker will also hold the title of Corporate Editor of Newsweek, where he will continue a number of initiatives he has started with Newsweek.com.
“During his eight-year term as Editor, Mark has worked with vision and creativity to keep the magazine a vital force in the nation’s conversation and in the lives of our readers,” Smith said. “Thanks to his guidance and the efforts of his remarkable team, Newsweek has been ahead of the pack on stories ranging from the tragedy of September 11 and the war in Iraq to turbulent presidential elections and breakthroughs in health, technology and education. Every bit as important, he has always been a trusted partner, a wise colleague and a true friend.
“In Jon we are fortunate to have perhaps the best and brightest young editor in the business,” Smith said. “He is a gifted writer on social, political and religious affairs, a remarkable editor and talented manager. His uncanny judgment, lively intelligence and steadfast commitment to quality in print and on the Web will lead Newsweek into a bright future.”
Smith also announced that Assistant Managing Editor Daniel Klaidman has been named Managing Editor and will join Meacham and Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria in the magazine’s editorial high command. All changes are effective Oct. 2.
Under Whitaker’s leadership, Newsweek has won a record number of industry awards, among them four National Magazine Awards, including two for General Excellence for its coverage of September 11 and the Iraq War, and has introduced a number of new editorial franchises to strengthen and brand the magazine’s coverage of technology, health and personal service. During his tenure, Newsweek.com has attracted more traffic than any other newsmagazine site and won a host of online awards, including an Editor & Publisher’s (EPpy) award for best newsmagazine Web site, a MIN “Best of the Web Award” and a nomination for the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2006.
Whitaker was elected president of the American Society of Magazine Editors and sits on the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Before becoming Editor, Whitaker was a reporter, writer and editor for Newsweek for two decades. He served as an Assistant Managing Editor and then managing editor from 1991-1998.
Meacham was named Managing Editor in November 1998, supervising the magazine’s coverage of politics, international affairs and breaking news. He has written cover stories on politics, religion, guns in America, race, and the death of Ronald Reagan. He recently completed “American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation,” (Random House, 2006) which went on to become a New York Times and Washington Post bestseller. His award-winning “Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship” (Random House, 2003) was also a New York Times bestseller, and he is the editor of “Voices In Our Blood,” an anthology of distinguished nonfiction on the civil-rights movement (Random House, 2001). Meacham is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Board of Regents of The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. In 2005 he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University.
Meacham joined Newsweek in January 1995 and became National Affairs editor in June of that year. In that role, he supervised coverage of politics and breaking news. In 1998, he edited Newsweek’s groundbreaking coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the impeachment of the president, which was honored with a 1999 National Magazine Award for Reporting.
Klaidman came to Newsweek in 1996 and has covered the Department of Justice, served as Jerusalem Bureau Chief, and, most recently, as Washington Bureau Chief, where he helped supervise the magazine’s coverage of war, politics, foreign policy and social issues. He has co-authored numerous cover stories, including groundbreaking pieces on “Al Qaeda in the U.S.” and the future of Israel. “Dan’s sound judgment and his keen reportorial skills represent the best of Newsweek’s tradition of breaking important news and offering a clear perspective on events to come,” Smith said. “Every section of the magazine will benefit from his intelligence, ingenuity and breadth of interests.”
