Polgreen Tapped As EIC, 'The Huffington Post'

The Huffington Post has hired Lydia Polgreen, editorial director of NYT Global at The New York Times, to be its new editor-in-chief, replacing co-founder Arianna Huffington.

Polgreen will be only the second editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post since its launch in 2005. Huffington left the company this August to launch Thrive Global, a start-up focused on health and wellness. The Huffington Post has since been operating under an interim editorial committee and CEO Jared Grusd.

Polgreen, who is also associate masthead editor at The New York Times, said in an interview with The Huffington Post that she could not pass up this “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

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She added the site has the “potential and the possibility of really meeting this populist moment we’re living in and meeting people where they actually are.”

Polgreen told the NYT her main challenge is to “get The Huffington Post back in touch with its fundamental roots in reporting.”

In her nearly 15 years at the NYT, Polgreen helped oversee the launch of The New York Times en Español and served as a foreign correspondent in South Africa, India and West Africa, as well as a deputy international editor.

In April, she became editorial director for NYT Global and had a key role in spearheading the newspaper's expansion into international markets. It is likely Polgreen will promote a strong global presence for The Huffington Post, which now has 17 international editions.

Dean Baquet, the executive editor of the NYT, said in an interview with the NYT: "I have to admit to a certain pride that The Huffington Post saw the value of hiring one of the Times’ great young stars.”

On Twitter, some media reporters are suggesting Polgreen may be one of the the first queer woman of color to head the masthead of a major publication.
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