Margaret Sullivan (journalist)
Margaret M. Sullivan is an American journalist who is executive director for the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security at Columbia Journalism School and media, politics, and culture columnist for The Guardian US. She previously worked as media columnist for The Washington Post, as fifth public editor of The New York Times, and as editor and vice-president of The Buffalo News.
Biography
Sullivan is a native of Lackawanna, New York. She is the daughter of John Sullivan, an attorney, and Elaine Saab Sullivan, a department store buyer and school teacher. She graduated from Nardin Academy in Buffalo, where she served as editor in chief of the school newspaper and captain of the basketball team. She is a graduate of Georgetown University. She also holds an M.S.J. from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Sullivan joined The Buffalo News in 1980 as a summer intern, becoming the paper's first female editor in 1999. In 1985, she married fellow Buffalo News journalist Charles Anzalone. They had two children before divorcing in 2007.Sullivan was appointed to the Pulitzer Prize Board in 2011. She has been a juror several times and has served as the chairwoman of the commentary jury in 2006. She has been elected a director of the American Society of News Editors and led its First Amendment committee. Sullivan is also the author of Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy, which was published by Columbia Global Reports in 2020, and her memoir, Newsroom Confidential: Lessons from an Ink-Stained Life, which was published by St. Martin's Press in 2022.
Career
''The Buffalo News''
Sullivan was the first woman to serve as the editor and as the managing editor of The Buffalo News, the largest newspaper in Western New York, after previously working as a reporter and columnist. Sullivan focused The Buffalo NewsShe was criticized for the newspaper's reporting of the 2010 City Grill shooting, after she allowed the victims' criminal records to be published as a front-page story. Buffalo's black community responded by staging public burnings of the newspaper in protest.
''The New York Times''
In the New York Times announcement of Sullivan's appointment on July 16, 2012, former executive editor Jill Abramson said, "Margaret has exactly the right experience to assume this critical role for us at this time. She has an impressive 32-year background in print journalism where she has distinguished herself as a reporter, columnist, editor and manager. And critically for us at this time, she has shown adeptness at embracing new platforms and engaging and interacting with readers in real time online, in print and in person." Unlike previous public editors of The New York Times, Sullivan signed on for four years.In December 2015, Sullivan announced that she was not renewing her contract with The Times. Sullivan stated that "The role really requires an outsider's perspective, so I've thought all along that having a clear time limit serves The Times and its readers best."
Her tenure was celebrated by both journalists and readers. "Her tenure accomplished many things, most importantly the potential of web-based media reporting and criticism to combat the media establishment's groupthink," Eric Alterman observed.