In a note to newsroom staff, Samantha Melbourneweaver, Managing Editor, Digital Audience Growth & Engagement, made the following announcement:
I'm excited to announce Olly Dearden will be the new Deputy Managing Editor, Weekdays, leading our efforts to drive the news of the day, coordinating coverage across shows, desks and platforms and helping us more effectively deliver the news to our audiences.
Olly comes to the digital team after 7 years working as Supervising Producer for All Things Considered. Prior to joining ATC, Olly worked as a line producer for Weekend Edition and a producer for Morning Edition after coming to NPR from BBC Radio.
"I look forward to the challenge of helping direct traffic for the network and allowing everyone here to do their best work," says Olly. "I also want to shout out and thank the best team I've worked with at NPR. ATC is a gem, and every PA, Producer, Editor, Host and Manager have made this job so much easier than it could have been. I will miss the ATC team dearly but I know they will continue to do amazing things."
In his new role, Olly will work with Eric Marrapodi, Eva Rodriguez, and me to lead the morning and afternoon news meetings, helping to set coverage priorities for the day, then run the day as DME, and making sure we're chasing the stories audiences on all of our platforms want most from us.
I'm also pleased to announce that Arielle Retting will be Acting Senior Editor, Digital Audience. Arielle will work alongside Olly and with editors for the homepage and engagement to ensure our work is optimized for our platforms and distributed with speed, elegance and in the ways our audiences find most engaging. She will also take part in the morning and afternoon news meetings, leading our discussions around metrics and digital-first plans for the day.
Arielle has been an editor at NPR for just over 6 years, most recently working as a growth editor where she took charge of Piano, our platform for signing up new members to npr.org and gaining newsletter subscribers, pitched our first Climate Solutions Week, created our system around tentpole projects, and helped launch the digital acceleration program alongside our colleagues on the Audience Insights team.
C Mandler will also join Olly's team as Editor II, Trending News Assignments. C, who has been an engagement editor at NPR for just under a year, will scour the internet and social media each day, looking for coverage ideas to best serve our audiences. They will continue to put out their daily trends newsletter, The Trendsetter, and will help desks choose stories aimed at helping develop reader habits around their most important coverage areas. Expect C to reach out with story ideas and alternate angles around major news on your beat.
Thank you,
Samantha Melbourneweaver
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