NYTimes "Dining In: Disarray"

[kpurvis]

He'll be deputy editor.

[kpurvis]

Oh, and his replacement is Kathleen McElroy, currently the Weekend editor, former deputy sports editor.

And Sam, if you check in here: I've heard good things about Kathleen, but I'll miss you in the slot. You did a good job.

[Marlene]

Kathy, could you put some context around this for those on this site who have no idea who Sam Sifton is?

Thanks

[Suzanne F]

Jumping in to say: he's a guy who knows what a Venn diagram is: Today's Diner's Journal in the NY Times

[ned]

It's been a rocky time over there but damn. . . did that really have to happen?

[Suzanne F]

Oh, please, why must every change be greeted with ?

[ned]

Well in my case, I respond this way because I like his take on food: casual humble serious and informed. I'll miss him. Just because Grimes left and there was ahem a maybe less than apt interim critic it doesn't seem to me. . . breaking news, my wife says it's a promotion. Hats off to that.

[Pan]

Thanks for the news, K.

To both editors, I wish you the best of luck and much enjoyment in your new positions! And may you bring credit upon your institution.

[Fat Guy]

It's nearly impossible to know what Sifton did or didn't do for the section during his tenure. Editors operate very much in the background, and there's no logical basis for drawing a connection between the quality of his writing (which has always been good) and his effectiveness as an editor (all we really have to judge him by is the overall quality of the section, and even there we can't know what he did and didn't have the power to change).

Kathi, do you know where this news has appeared? I don't see anything about it on Gawker, where I'd normally expect to find something of this sort.

[jhlurie]

I've wondered... is he the same Sam Sifton who got totally raked over the coals writing a book about how wonderful and unchangeable the new "E-Economy" was, which came out right around the time that E-Economy crashed and burned?

[alacarte]

Oh, and his replacement is Kathleen McElroy, currently the Weekend editor, former deputy sports editor.

And Sam, if you check in here: I've heard good things about Kathleen, but I'll miss you in the slot. You did a good job.

what is it with the connection between sports and food?

at the Washington Post, food editor Jeanne Mcmanus covered sports before moving to the food beat. I don't know if she was the sports section editor, but I'd wager she was.

[hannnah]

what is it with the connection between sports and food?

at the Washington Post, food editor Jeanne Mcmanus covered sports before moving to the food beat. I don't know if she was the sports section editor, but I'd wager she was.

She may have been a sports editor, but not the sports editor - the current Post sports editor started in 2003, and the prior one was there for 27 years.

As far as sports+food, sports reporters generally eat pretty well - they're almost always fed in the press room. And there's no shortage of "x arena/x stadium has really good/bad food and here's why" kind of talk. It's not a huge leap from doing that in conversation to doing it in print, if you're already in the newspaper business and you're interested in it. Plus, you don't have to spend nearly as much time coming up with synonyms for "won" and "lost" in the food section.

[Steve Klc]

From Jeanne's eGullet Q&A: "Was deputy sports editor for eight years that included 5 Olympics, 3 Redskins coaches, 3 Bullets/Wizards coaches, 3 Capitals coaches, Tonya and Nancy, OJ, Magic, Mike Tyson, 2 Michael Jordan retirements, one Bandwagon and dozens of stories on various athletes charged with drunk driving and sexual assault. Style assignment editor (one year), Magazine senior editor (eight years), Editorial Page assistant editor (2 years.)"

[challah-baker]

I'll miss his food writing. I loved it when Asimov was temprorarily elsewhere and Sifton was writing more. I know I have posted this quote before, but who else would write "...in a sauce that can only be described as yuchy.." He was funny, perceptive, fair and seems to really know and enjoy food.

[Scotthaas]

If you think it was in disarray then, look now.

The editor from 2004 "resigned" very suddenly and has been replaced by Nick Fox.

Mr. Fox was Jayson Blair's editor when Mr. Blair was fabricating stories on the DC sniper--that scandal led to massive resignations including that of Howell Raines. Currently most of the former editor's assignments have been killed.

So what's the real story?