Slate, the online publication known for counterintuitive analysis and its many podcasts, has chosen a specialist in narrative journalism as its next editor in chief.
On Wednesday, the company announced that it had given the job to Jared Hohlt, a veteran of New York magazine. He succeeds Julia Turner, who left Slate in October to become a deputy managing editor of The Los Angeles Times. Lowen Liu, formerly the managing editor, has served as Slate’s acting editor in chief since Ms. Turner’s departure.
Mr. Hohlt, 47, is scheduled to start April 1. During his 18 years at New York, he served in a variety of roles, including editorial director and top editor of the print version of the magazine. In 2016, the magazine won in the general excellence category at the National Magazine Awards. For most of his time at New York, he worked under the editor in chief Adam Moss, who announced his resignation in January after a 15-year run.
Mr. Hohlt got his start at Slate as an editorial assistant two decades ago, when, he recalled in an interview, at least one contributor insisted on using a typewriter. “It was a journalistic training ground for me,” he said.
After his time there, he was an editor at Metropolis, an architecture and design magazine, and Inside.com. Before becoming the top print editor at New York in 2014, the year the magazine went from a weekly to a biweekly, he edited pieces by Kurt Andersen, Jesse Green and Emily Nussbaum, among many others.
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Jared Hohlt, a veteran of New York magazine, was named the new editor in chief of Slate on Wednesday.CreditSlate
Mr. Hohlt was considered a potential editor in chief of New York, but the job went to David Haskell, a deputy editor, after Mr. Moss stepped down.
“We’re in a moment where the media landscape has never been more crowded, and Jared has a real track record of editing pieces that stand out in that landscape,” said Dan Check, Slate’s chief executive.
Slate, founded in 1996, has gone through some upheaval in recent months. In addition to the departure of its former editor in chief, Ms. Turner, it lost a key executive when Jacob Weisberg, the chairman and editor in chief of the Slate Group, left in September for a new podcast venture.
Slate, based in New York, also became a union shop last year, when its staff members joined the Writers Guild of America East. In January, Slate’s management entered into a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the union. The deal was reached after union members voted to strike.
Mr. Hohlt is likely to bring stability to the publication, and Mr. Check said his storytelling expertise would benefit Slate’s roughly two dozen podcasts. The audio offerings have included chatty shows like “Slate Political Gabfest” and more story-focused productions like “Slow Burn,” which doled out the tales of Watergate and President Clinton’s impeachment in serial format. (“Slow Burn” was written and narrated by Leon Neyfakh, who left Slate last year to start his own audio company.)
“Narrative is something I adore, and that can be applied differently in different places,” Mr. Hohlt said. “But as we see with podcasts, there’s a whole other way to do narrative. There are incredible stories being told in that medium, and that is super exciting to me.”
Mr. Hohlt said he also planned to expand Slate’s political and news coverage as the 2020 campaign season intensifies. “I’ve been living on a biweekly rhythm for a long time now and I’m excited for a whole new rhythm to work with,” he added.
