FiveThirtyEight announced Monday that David Firestone will be managing editor of the data-driven news site, joining his former New York Times colleague Nate Silver.
In his new position, Firestone will help ESPN’s news site gather resources for projects, infuse statistics into the site’s journalism and create “a sense of mission around the news each day,” Silver writes.
Firestone, who was a 21-year veteran of The New York Times, announced in December he was joining many of his colleagues in taking a buyout from the paper. During his run at The Times, Firestone helped edit the paper’s coverage of “the Great Recession, Hurricane Katrina and the rebuilding of New Orleans,” according to FiveThirtyEight’s announcement. He was recently special projects editor of The New York Times editorial board.
Firestone replaces Mike Wilson, who recently left to become editor of The Dallas Morning News. He starts later this month, and he’ll oversee an expanding newsroom, Silver writes.
