Boston Globe Media CEO Linda Henry hails departing editor Nancy Barnes

More news on the Nancy Barnes front, as several sources have forwarded to me an email just sent to the staff by Boston Globe Media CEO Linda Henry.

Team,

Today, Nancy Barnes announced that she will be stepping down from her role as Globe Editor at the end of next week, but thankfully staying with us in the role of Editor at Large. Over the past three years, Nancy has led the Globe newsroom with extraordinary dedication, guiding us through this historic news cycle and helping us deliver exceptional and award-winning journalism that will have a lasting impact on our community. While it is a loss for her to step back, we are thrilled that she is staying with the organization.

Globe readership and our subscriber base has grown under Nancy’s leadership, while the Globe has consistently been recognized nationally for the quality of our daily and investigative journalism across all of our platforms, including:

• A Gerald Loeb Award, RFK Award, and Pulitzer Prize finalist honors for public service for our reporting on the Steward Health Care crisis.
• Top ONA and Edward R. Murrow awards for the excellence of our digital report; our Sandra Birchmore investigation also won a Murrow award this year.
• The first duPont-Columbia Award in the Globe’s history for the Spotlight team’s podcast, “Murder in Boston,” as well as Top IRE audio honors, and the corresponding docuseries which received an Edward R. Murrow Award and the Globe’s first-ever National Emmy Award.
• The Michael Donoghue Freedom of Information award for our State’s Secrets reporting, and many others.

In addition to the world-class journalism, Nancy has moved the newsroom forward, finding ways to better reach and serve our smart audiences, including the launch of new newsletters like Starting Point, the launch of the Globe Weather HQ, the expansion of our Globe High School Sports initiative, a new, strategic focus on video journalism in partnership with our audience team, the opening of the Globe New Hampshire bureau to strengthen regional reporting, and the launch of Boston Globe Sports Report in collaboration with NESN.
These, and other initiatives, have allowed the Globe to innovate, adapt to the evolving digital landscape, and grow our reach on multiple platforms.

Nancy shared that she has decided to “take a break from the daily firestorm of news, consider new challenges, and tend to some personal issues.” While we will all miss her daily presence, we are grateful that she will remain part of the Globe in her new role as Editor at Large, available for editing support, coaching, and counsel. Nancy shared that she is also hopeful for more time to focus on a fundraising project to bring more investigative reporting to communities in New England news deserts, where local coverage is limited.

The Globe newsroom is full of dedicated, passionate journalists, and it has been a privilege to watch you all work alongside Nancy, whose professionalism, empathy, and talent have left a lasting mark on this team. Please join me in thanking Nancy for her leadership and her many contributions to The Boston Globe and the company.

We will share further updates about newsroom leadership with you very soon.

With gratitude,
Linda