The Boston Globe named Brian McGrory editor on Thursday, replacing Marty Baron, who stepped down earlier this month to become editor of the Washington Post.
McGrory, a longtime columnist and editor for the paper's Metro section, joined the Globe in 1989 and has served in a variety of positions, covering the White House, national politics and local Massachusetts affairs.
"Brian built a strong team of reporters and editors during his tenure in the newsroom — a team that regularly beat the competition on major stories," publisher Christopher M. Mayer wrote in an email to the newsroom, obtained by TheWrap. "He led the staff in a comprehensive investigation of corruption and cronyism on Beacon Hill that eventually led to resignations and indictments."
Born and raised in the Boston metro area, McGrory started his career at the New Haven Register and the Patriot Ledger before joining the Globe's South Weekly suburban section and rising through the ranks to the White House correspondent slot. He was named associate editor in 2004.
He is also the author of a memoir and four novels.
The appointment of a Massachusetts native — educated at Bates College in Maine — marks a further shift for the Globe toward localization and regional coverage. Baron had spent years at other national newspapers — at the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the Miami Herald — before arriving at the Globe's offices in 2001.
As the stream print advertising dollars dried up in the mid-2000s, the paper shuttered its foreign bureaus, replacing its international coverage with wire service stories. Though it maintains a bureau in Washington, D.C., it has become increasingly New England-centric in the last 10 years.
McGrory also takes over at a time of great flux for the Globe.
Owned by the New York Times Company, the paper and its roster of digital properties were spared the chopping block as the Times shed its Regional Newspaper Group and sold About.com this year.
The Globe — part of the New England Media Group, which also includes the Worcester Telegram & Gazette — survived a looming closure in 2009. Since then, some in the newsroom have told TheWrap they believe the Times is grooming the paper for sale sometime in 2013.
The newspaper won awards last year for its website, BostonGlobe.com, a subscription site and the first newspaper website to be built in HTML5 coding. But since then, the paper has struggled to woo digital subscribers in any signifcant way.
Full disclosure: Alexander C. Kaufman served as a Metro correspondent for the Boston Globe from November 2010 to May 2012.
