Slate Names Ex-HuffPost Editor as Its New Top Editor

Slate has named Hillary Frey, a former top editor at HuffPost, as its new editor in chief.

In a memo to the staff on Wednesday, Slate’s chief executive, Dan Check, said Ms. Frey was “the exact right person to lead Slate’s newsroom in this new phase of growth,” highlighting both her years of experience and her understanding of “the challenges and opportunities of this current news environment.”

Slate, one of few surviving original digital media outlets, has struggled in recent years to find its way in the new media landscape and figure out a sustainable business model. It has been without an editor in chief since early January, when Jared Hohlt stepped down. Mr. Hohlt, who had the job for three years, will soon join The New York Times’s T Magazine.

Ms. Frey is currently a creator in residence at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at City University of New York. She was previously the executive editor of HuffPost, a role she left in 2021 after HuffPost was acquired by BuzzFeed. Ms. Frey has also run newsrooms at NBC News, Adweek, Yahoo News and Fusion.

“I feel a very longstanding, deep connection with Slate and what they do,” Ms. Frey said in an interview this week. “Being smart, being irreverent, having fun, putting out just great and interesting ideas that may be sitting right in front of you but nobody has put into words yet and just having really sharp analysis.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/11/business/media/hillary-frey-slate-editor-in-chief.html