Memo to New York Times staff
The Media Desk is delighted and relieved to announce that we’ve found the perfect reporter to replace Richard Perez-Pena on the newspaper beat. Jeremy W. Peters, an alumni of Metro, Bizday and the Detroit bureau, will take over the publishing job covering both newspapers and magazines on June 1st.
It’s a fascinating time to cover both industries and Jeremy specializes in good timing. He began working for the Times in 2001 when, as a senior at the University of Michigan, he just happened to be sitting by the phone at the Michigan Daily when Jodi Rudoren called looking for a stringer. Jeremy did a brief stint as Danny Hakim’s intern in the Detroit bureau before shipping off to St. Thomas, where he was a reporter for two years at the Virgin Islands Daily News covering everything from late-night shootings to Carnival parades to local politics.
He returned to the States, and to the Times, in 2004 as a stringer in the Detroit bureau, focusing on the disintegration of the auto industry. In 2006, he made the move to New York and began a great run as a hybrid BizDay/Continuous News reporter, pounding out deadline stories on inflation and housing starts, and taking time out to write great features for other departments, including Media.
He moved to Metro in 2007 and was again the beneficiary of great timing when the Times temporarily sent him up to Albany just two weeks before Eliot Spitzer resigned and David Paterson became our governor. Jeremy stayed, contributing to the package of coverage that won Metro its Pulitzer, then churning out page-turners about Andrew Cuomo’s Oz-like appearances before the press, Paterson’s quiet instruction to recognize out-of-state gay marriages and a little outfit organizing upstate that went by the name Tea Party. He even stepped up to the newspaper beat to track down Sunny the Clown, the kids’ entertainer hired by The New York Post to wander around Albany. She admitted having her picture taken with pols but denied writing the Post op-ed that appeared under her byline. (Jeremy’s move to Media opens up a position in Metro covering the state government. If you’re interested, contact Carolyn Ryan at cryan@nytimes.com.)
Wherever he’s gone in the paper, Jeremy has demonstrated enthusiasm, boundless curiosity, a great eye for a story and terrific writing. And, as a native of Michigan, he knows a thing or two about industries in upheaval. Go, Wolverine.
Bruce Headlam
Media Editor
The New York Times
