Tag: Scott Allen

Evan Allen, a Pulitzer winner and lead writer on the Globe’s Stuart series, is leaving

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Evan Allen is leaving The Boston Globe, the paper’s second major recent loss. Allen, a highly regarded journalist who’s the lead writer on the paper’s series about Charles and Carol Stuart, will join her brother John Allen’s digital storytelling company, Ballen Studios, as her father, Scott Allen, did earlier this year. Scott Allen had been a top editor at the Globe.

“Evan is off to produce strange, dark, and mysterious stories for her brother’s burgeoning media empire,” Brendan McCarthy, the Globe’s assistant manager editor for projects, said in an email to the staff, which was forwarded to me by a trusted source. “It’s a bit of a family affair, and Evan will be running the creative department, where her spookiness will undoubtedly flourish.”

Earlier today I reported that Jason Tuohey, the Globe’s managing editor for audience and new platforms, was leaving for parts unknown.

Evan Allen was a winner of the 2021 Pulitzer for Investigative Reporting, as she was part of a team of Globe journalists who produced a series on dangerous drivers. She’s won a number of other awards as well, according to her Globe bio.

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A top Globe editor moves on

Scott Allen, a top editor at The Boston Globe (his title is assistant managing editor for projects), is leaving the paper, according to an email sent to the staff Thursday afternoon by editor Nancy Barnes. Here’s the email, sent to me by several trusted sources.

Dear all,

Scott Allen is leaving the Globe after 30 years to work with his son, John Allen, better known as MrBallen, whose hit podcast on Amazon Prime and his videos on YouTube reach millions each week.

It’s nearly impossible to sum up 30 years of Boston Globe journalism in a few paragraphs, but here goes:  At the Globe, Scott has helped edit four Pulitzer Prize finalists and one Pulitzer winner, the Quick Strike Team’s “Blind Spot” series, which won for investigative reporting. Most recently, he worked closely with Janelle Nanos on her heart wrenching Pulitzer finalist “Kate Price remembers something terrible.”

Scott has also served as Spotlight Team leader and editor of the Globe’s medical, science and environmental coverage. He joined the Globe as a cub environmental reporter back in 1992.

And in recent years, Scott has led the newsroom’s effort to make the most of our intellectual property, pursuing creative ways to repurpose the Globe content in podcasts, on TV and in other media.

“My colleagues at the Globe have been like family to me and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished together,” he said. “It’s bittersweet to say goodbye, but the opportunity to work with my son was just too good to pass up. I wish my friends here nothing but continued success.”

Scott has agreed to stay on for a few weeks to help me with transition issues. I want to personally thank Scott for welcoming me to the Globe long before I arrived, and for being such a supportive partner as I made my way around the organization.

Nancy

The Globe will partner with the Portland Press Herald on a Spotlight reporting project

The Boston Globe will partner with the Portland Press Herald on an unspecified investigative reporting project, according to the trade publication Editor & Publisher. The partnership will produce “a multi-part investigative report that will be published by both organizations this fall.”

The project will be funded by the Spotlight Investigative Journalism Fellowship, established by the Globe and Participant Media, the producers of the movie “Spotlight.” Grants of up to $100,000 are awarded to reporters or teams of reporters. This is the first time the Globe has partnered with another news organization. The series will be published by both papers.

Scott Allen, the Globe’s assistant managing editor for projects, declined in an email to say what the topic of the reporting would be — but when I noted that the Press Herald reporter who’ll be working on the project, Penelope Overton, covers the lobster industry, Allen said that “we expect to take full advantage of her considerable expertise.”

There are some interesting intersections between the Globe and the Press Herald. The E&P story points out that Press Herald managing editor Steve Greenlee worked at the Globe for 12 years. But it goes beyond that. Lisa DeSisto, who is chief executive officer of the Press Herald and its sister papers, was previously a high-ranking business-side executive at the Globe (and, before that, a colleague of mine at The Boston Phoenix).

The two papers also have the distinction of having been pursued by Boston-area businessman Aaron Kushner, who tried to buy the Globe in 2010 and nearly succeeded in buying the Press Herald in 2012. Kushner and a team of investors ended up purchasing the Orange County Register in Southern California later in 2012. They spent considerable resources in building up the Register and acquiring and launching other papers — only to tear it all down in short order when the hoped-for revenues failed to materialize. Today the Register is owned by the notorious hedge fund Alden Global Capital. (I tell the story of Kushner’s newspaper adventures in my book “The Return of the Moguls.”)

Today the Press Herald is owned by Reade Brower, a printer, who’s built a small chain of Maine newspapers and gets generally high marks for his stewardship. The Globe, of course, is owned by billionaires John and Linda Henry.