John and I Are Thrilled to Announce That Paul Volpe, The

John and I are thrilled to announce that Paul Volpe, the deputy politics editor and deputy Washington bureau chief for digital of The New York Times, will join POLITICO next month as the executive editor. We’re equally excited that Peter Canellos, who pushed POLITICO to new heights in this position, will take on a new role of editor-at-large, leading a newsroom-wide effort to make our publication a top outlet for high-impact investigative pieces.

In the weeks ahead, we plan to dramatically expand responsibilities for people already in the newsroom and inject fresh talent into our ranks. Cumulatively, these moves — and the others to come — make a powerful statement about our obsessions: We will invest in powerful journalism while finding new and innovative ways to reach and expand our audience.

Before we introduce you to Paul, we’re delighted to outline Peter’s next mission.

One of our top aims during this transition was to convince Peter to stay at POLITICO. In two years as executive editor, Peter has built a top-quality editing team, recruited a large number of reporting and editing stars, and played a central role in uniting the fast- growing, ambitious Pro staff with that of the core politics team. He’s raised the bar for standards of writing and reporting across the newsroom, and played a significant role in our stellar 2016 coverage alongside Susan, Kristin, Blake and many others. That recently culminated in a record October for our company, with more than 34 million unique visitors to POLITICO.com and more than 234 million page views.

But Peter has long expressed a desire to be free of responsibility for daily news coverage after the election, so as to be able to help POLITICO reach even higher levels of ambition on non-breaking stories. This also happened to be a shared goal of ours, to build on the work of so many people before us to make POLITICO a top outlet for game-changing investigative pieces.

So we’ve asked Peter to take on a new role in recruiting, both from within the newsroom and outside POLITICO, a team of investigative-oriented journalists to do just that. In his new role as editor-at-large, Peter will report to me and have responsibilities across the newsroom. He will both oversee the investigative team and utilize his knowledge of the skills and interests of the staff, both Pro and core, to develop high-impact stories that grow out of our daily reporting. He’ll also be a player-coach, utilizing his own writing and reporting skills.

As many of you know, Peter is well-suited to the task. He has personally edited two Pulitzer Prize-winning series, along with many others that were named Pulitzer finalists. As a writer, he won the ASNE writing award. I’m truly grateful to have someone of Peter’s skills and knowledge of the staff to help us in this role. He’s been an incredible adviser since I returned to the newsroom, and I’m so glad I’ll be able to continue to benefit from his guidance.

As I searched for Peter’s successor as executive editor, I looked for someone with a range of attributes: a sharp story editor, a gifted manager, a digital whiz, a creative thinker, an entrepreneur and a deep understanding of the fluidity of the media business.

Paul Volpe is all of that — and more.

With tours at The New York Times, the Washington Post and Congressional Quarterly, Paul is a proven innovator. He comes to POLITICO with a unique mix of experience that covers journalism, technology, design and business. Plus, he’s one of the nicest guys around.

Paul joined the New York Times in 2011, and he now wears two hats: a deputy politics editor guiding coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign, and deputy Washington bureau chief guiding the bureau’s digital strategy. He’s planned and helped lead coverage of debates, conventions, primary and general election nights, as well as the big Washington fights in recent years over health care, the budget and the Supreme Court.

As part of a New York Times team that reimagined coverage of live events this year, he’s been an engine in a lot of the new digital experiments that the publication tried with its politics coverage, including introducing live chats during debates and conventions, developing new story formats and integrating video and social into their coverage. He was described by one Times colleague as “the least conventional in his thinking about news presentation, and I mean that in a very good way.”

Before the Times, he helped launch TBD, the local news startup backed by Robert Allbritton. Paul also served as a deputy political editor at The Washington Post, covering the 2008 presidential election, and then as digital editor for national in 2009, covering the enactment of the health care law and the first two years of the Obama administration. During his 15 years in Washington newsrooms, he’s helped conceive, design, launch and lead coverage for more than 10 news products, from desktop to mobile, consumer to subscription, core to niche. This breadth of experience will be critical as we navigate the undercurrents in the industry.

Best of all, Paul shares our deep commitment to lead a newsroom that is competitive, positive, collaborative and fun. He’s as bullish as we are about POLITICO as we enter our second decade. And just like us, he’s excited to help write the publication's next great act.

Carrie John