Julie Pace is the new executive editor of The Associated Press

By Brian Stelter, CNN Business

Julie Pace, the political reporter turned Washington bureau chief at The Associated Press, is the news agency’s new executive editor.

Pace, 39, is succeeding Sally Buzbee, who departed the AP last spring for The Washington Post. She is starting in the new role immediately.

“We have great opportunities ahead to modernize our news report and better serve the needs of our customers and audience, while always maintaining AP’s standing as the world’s preeminent fact-based news organization,” Pace said in a statement.

The Associated Press is a newswire of record, structured as a nonprofit, supplying news alerts, analysis and other building blocks of news coverage to outlets around the world. The organization estimates that “more than half the world’s population sees AP journalism every day.”

When Buzbee exited, the AP looked inward for a new leader of the newsroom.

Pace has been with the AP since 2007. She was the outlet’s first multimedia political journalist during the 2008 presidential campaign. She covered both terms of Barack Obama’s presidency, working her way up to the position of chief White House correspondent. In 2016 she was the lead reporter for the AP’s presidential campaign coverage.

In 2017 she moved into a management role as Washington bureau chief, which raised her profile within the AP as a whole. She also continued to appear on CNN and other networks with political analysis.

She is taking the top newsroom job now at a time of executive transition atop the AP. Current CEO Gary Pruitt will hand off to Daisy Veerasingham at the end of the year.

On Wednesday Veerasingham praised Pace’s “strong, collaborative leadership and exceptional news judgment.”

The AP’s announcement noted that Pace is the third woman to hold the executive editor title, following Kathleen Carroll and Buzbee. “A woman has held that role since 2002,” the AP said. “Pace will report to Veerasingham, who is the first woman, first person of color and first non-U.S. citizen to hold the position of president and CEO.”

Pace, a native of Buffalo who describes herself on Twitter as a “long-suffering, newly-optimistic Buffalo Bills fan,” will move from Washington to New York City for her new role.

The-CNN-Wire
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