The New York Times is looking for its next business editor — and sources said the search appears to be “wide open” even as its current editor Ellen Pollock is slated to step down next month.
The Gray Lady has been scrambling to find Pollock’s replacement since announcing her move last month, sources said, adding that deputy business editor Pui-Wing Tam is a leading candidate for the role.
“Pui-Wing Tam is Ellen’s heir apparent,” a source said, noting that the editor has spent over 11 years at the Times and helped lead the paper’s tech coverage.
The source signaled that Tam may have personal issues to take care of that could get in the way of the editor decamping from San Francisco to New York for the top business role.
Insiders said that Tam is by no means a lock.
Times executive editor Joe Kahn “hasn’t made a decision yet,” said a source with knowledge of the matter. “It sounds wide open.”
Another editor who has thrown her hat in the ring is Deborah Solomon, a hard-charging economics editor based in Washington, DC.
“Deb is pushing for it, but she’s intense,” said the source, who also acknowledged Solomon’s accomplishments as a financial journalist.
The job listing, which was posted last week, seeks a journo with over 10 years’ experience as an editor to oversee reporters covering everything from media, tech and AI to the global economy and the power brokers that run the business world.
The salary was listed as $240,000 to $285,000.
“It’s a sprawling section but not the most loved by the paper,” said one Times insider, who compared it to other more “prestigious” sections like the investigations team.
Breaker first reported on rumors of Pollock’s retirement in March – claims Pollock denied at the time.
“I am not retiring right now, but I’m not going to die at my desk,” Pollock said at the time, cleverly dancing around the fact that she was planning on stepping away from the business desk, where she has spent nine years.
The Times said last month Pollock – who has also held reporting and editing jobs at the American Lawyer, the Wall Street Journal and Businessweek, where she was editor-in-chief – would take on a new role.
“In recent months, Ellen has told us that she felt it was time to move on from leading our business and economics coverage,” The Times said. “Ellen will step down as business editor in September, but happily she is not stepping away from The Times and will be putting her editing and reporting skills to good use.”
A Times source said “cushy” jobs like one in the works for Pollock are customarily given to senior journalists to keep them in the fold while slowly easing into retirement.
A spokesman for The Times declined to comment.