Insider's news division has a new Editor-In-Chief: Jennifer H. Cunningham!
Here’s the note that Insider's global editor-in-chief Nicholas Carlson sent to the team announcing the newsroom update.
Team–
We’ve spent the last few months speaking with dozens of deeply impressive editors (including Pulitzer winners and managers of global newsrooms) as we searched for our news division's next EIC.
In the end, we decided that the very best person for the job was already in the building: Jennifer H. Cunningham.
Until today, Jenn was the Executive Editor for the news division. She is now its Editor-in-Chief reporting to me, effective immediately.
I asked many of you inside and outside of the news division what we should look for in a News EIC. Below are some of the common traits that emerged… and you’ll see from Jenn’s impressive bio how she checked all the boxes.
Someone with deep metro or national desk reporting and editing experience
Jenn has been a full time journalist since 2004, with long stints at outlets including the New York Daily News and iOne. She's covered historic events like the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting, Hurricane Sandy in NYC and New Jersey, and both the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections (among many bylines). On top of that, her coverage of Whitney Houston's death won an award from the New York Association of Black Journalists. She's also the president of the Newswomen’s Club of New York, the nation’s oldest nonprofit dedicated to supporting women journalists.
An inspiring leader who can get the most of our editors and reporters by teaching and collaborating with them
At Insider, Jenn has transformed her team within the news division. This is most obviously seen in our reporting on criminal investigations and the courts, which we barely covered before Jenn arrived. She quickly rolled up her sleeves and got to work training her staff on everything it takes to write fascinating court stories. We're now ending a week where all of us (and millions upon millions of readers) have been gripped by her division's coverage of the Depp-Heard trial — not to mention our high-impact coverage of the earlier Ghislaine Maxwell and R. Kelly trials.
Someone who knows what the next giant storyline is going to be before everyone else, and knows how to gear a newsroom to attack it
During the interview process, I learned that our courts coverage comes from a place of personal curiosity and obsession on Jenn's part. I learned that she maintains a spreadsheet of about 200 ongoing civil and criminal cases. No wonder we're the only national outlet with a reporter in the courtroom in Atlanta, forcing our rivals to follow our coverage on the trial of Todd Chrisley!
Someone who loves the wide range of stories our smart, curious, and ambitious readers love — from scandals and accountability to weird science, conflict reporting, and more
Jenn is a news junkie, and she got her journalism masters degree from City University in London. So she has a particular interest in the British press.
Every morning, before getting to US outlets, she reads a roundup of UK newspapers, including The Times, The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Mirror and the Guardian, to help inform her approach to the news of the day. A giant and influential part of our news division is based in London, so this cultural kinship is very promising.
Someone who not only makes sound (and sometimes tough) decisions, but also communicates and explains them directly with empathy.
The last thing you need to know is that, in a sometimes brutal industry, Jenn is kind. She's not afraid to make tough calls (I've seen her make them), but ask anyone who works with her and they will tell you that she is kind and calm, even when it's hard. That is the type of leader we want at Insider: Effective and inspirational, but a good egg through and through. And that’s Jenn!
Congratulations, and thank you, Jenn!