• by Sara Guaglione , September 15, 2017

NBC News is creating a dedicated team to cover the media and appointed Claire Atkinson senior media editor.

Atkinson, who joined NBC News from the New York Post earlier this month, will lead a team of both internal and external contributors to cover the media industry for all of NBC News and MSNBC’s broadcast and digital platforms.

The team will be housed inside NBC News Digital, and will report to its executive editor, Catherine Kim.

The media team does not yet have a name, but it will launch on NBCNews.com and all of its platforms in the coming weeks, according to a memo from NBC News president, Noah Oppenheim, MSNBC president, Phil Griffin, and head of digital, Nick Ascheim.

“Media is one of the biggest stories of 2017, cutting across the busy intersection of politics, technology, business and culture. From Silicon Valley to the White House to your smartphone, the landscape is changing dramatically. We see it every day. Competition for attention on screens is fierce. Credibility is under attack. Innovation is constant. And we want to cover this moment — in our own unique way,” they wrote.

Before her seven years at the NYP, Atkinson was business editor at Broadcasting & Cable, a media reporter for Advertising Age and media editor at PRWeek.

Internal contributors to the vertical include Jim Rainey. He joined NBC News in April as a news reporter based in Los Angeles, previously covering the film and entertainment industry at Variety and politics and media at the Los Angeles Times. Jo Ling Kent, an NBC News and MSNBC correspondent, will also join the team. Kent reports on the business of media, the technology giants and social-media platforms.

External contributors include Kara Swisher, executive editor at Recode, and Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed.

Politico and Vanity Fair have also increased their focus on the media beat, likely spurred by the Trump administration's contentious relationship with the press.