Brian McGrory announces some big changes at the top of The Boston Globe’s masthead

Five months after returning as editor of The Boston Globe, Brian McGrory has announced changes that will reshape the top of the masthead.

Cristina Silva, currently the managing editor for local news, will become managing editor for operations and standards, “focused on the future of this newsroom rather than daily journalism.” She’ll be replaced by Cynthia Needham, currently deputy managing editor for innovation and strategy, who McGrory called “an uncommonly strong editor with a fresh eye for what makes a great story.”

Finally, Jason Tuohey, a longtime Globe digital editor who’s currently editor-in-chief at the Encyclopedia Britannica, will return to the paper as managing editor for digital strategy. Tuohey is also an audience engagement consultant with Boston University’s local-news program. McGrory wrote that Tuohey “is coming back to a newsroom that is brimming with digital leaders who are among the best in the industry.”

McGrory’s full memo, sent to the staff earlier this afternoon and forwarded to me by a trusted source, follows.

Hey all,

I wanted to share some key changes in newsroom leadership with you.

First, I’ve asked Cristina Silva to commit herself to a new portfolio, focused on the future of this newsroom rather than daily journalism, and she has accepted this new challenge. As managing editor for operations and standards, Cristy will focus on so many of the forces that, with due thought and attention, have outsized potential to propel our work forward. Think artificial intelligence, first and foremost, and how we make the best use of it, in the best ways, with a human journalist always at the wheel. Think partnerships with other news organizations and the broader world, meaning the kinds of collaborations that can drive our work and magnify our impact. Think philanthropy and the pursuit of grant dollars that can make our already sizable newsroom even stronger with the right investments in the right places. Think resource allocation, which, yes, may be a fancy word for budgeting, but done well will help us determine whether we’re putting the right firepower in the places that will have the greatest impact for the organization and our readers. There’s no question that Cristy can and will do all of this well, given her fierce devotion to this organization and her smart approach to our work for the past two-and-a-half years. And I’d like Cristy’s eyes on particularly sensitive stories, making sure we are adhering to our community mission.

I’ve also asked Cristy to spend some time on the kinds of community events that have been one of her signatures, and to help build a powerful pool of prospective Globe staffers who will make an immediate difference when they walk into our newsroom.

Second, I’ve asked Jason Tuohey to return to the Globe as the managing editor for digital strategy, and he’ll begin on Tuesday, May 26. There’s no more direct way to say it: Jason is the single best digital news mind I’ve met in all my years in this business. That alone is a good thing. What’s better is Jason’s pragmatism, his ability to think big, but make it work for all of us on a daily, actually hourly basis. Jason was the secret sauce in helping this organization amass the digital subscriber rolls that we have, and he will come back renewed and improved after a couple of years away. As important, he is coming back to a newsroom that is brimming with digital leaders who are among the best in the industry.

Jason has not only seen the evolution of our digital strategy over a couple of decades, he’s been a central part of it. He was one of the early journalists who made boston.com the monster traffic site that it was in the early 2000s. As editor of the brand new bostonglobe.com, our first digital subscription play, in 2011, Jason was nothing short of vital in making us one of the best in the industry. As managing editor for digital at the Globe from the end of 2019 to 2023, he put together a heady team of some of the best talent in journalism and propelled the Globe into being one of the most envied organizations in the industry. He has spent the last couple of years in senior leadership roles at Yahoo News and, most recently, Britannica, where he’s been the editor-in-chief of an organization that attracts a staggering web readership.

Third, Cynthia Needham will become the managing editor for news, effective next week. When I took the role I have now, I inherited a search for a new ME that had already been launched by a national recruiter. That search yielded many impressive candidates. I weighed each of them against all others, and also against Cynthia, who hadn’t yet put her hand up for the job. I couldn’t find one better, and there’s a reason for that: Cynthia is an uncommonly strong editor with a fresh eye for what makes a great story.

As many of you know, Cynthia was a founding editor of our Express Desk when we launched it in 2017, and immediately worked with her powerful team to turn it into a readership juggernaut the likes of which exceeded all of our hopes. She and her team were not only on the news, but on the pulse, with a superb awareness of what our readers wanted, when they wanted it.

Across many years, Cynthia has responded when called, always in superb fashion. When we needed someone to enliven our business coverage, she gamely went to the business desk as an editor, barely pointing out that she knew virtually nothing about the subject. When we needed someone to launch our Rhode Island initiative, it was Cynthia. When we needed someone to take a prominent role in the reinvention, Cynthia. In the past few years, she’s been called on to run our intellectual property initiative, to create strategy, and to pursue innovation all around the room, always with a certain panache. Most recently, Cynthia has impressively guided a loose collection of departments through some key transitions.

There will be natural questions about which departments are answering to which managing editor, and we will sort through that in the days and weeks ahead. I strongly prefer a system that isn’t quite so hierarchical. Said another way, I like strong managing editors working closely together, and I like to be involved with department heads.

Please take a moment to congratulate Cristina, Jason, and Cynthia on their roles. There is a lot of work, and a lot of good, ahead.

Brian