AFTER MORE THAN A YEAR of searching for a new editorial page editor, the Boston Globe announced on Wednesday that MIT lecturer Bina Venkataraman will take over the job in November.
On her website, Venkataraman describes herself as “a writer and leader who works at the intersection of social progress, emerging technology & environmental change.” Her first book – The Optimist’s Telescope, Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age – was released in August.
In addition to lecturing at MIT, Venkataraman is also a fellow at New America and the director of global policy initiatives at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. She previously worked as a journalist at the New York Times and the Globe.
The Globe press release announcing her appointment was dated Tuesday but not released until Wednesday afternoon. The appointment appears to be the decision of Linda Henry, the Globe’s managing director and the wife of publisher John Henry; she was the only Globe official quoted in the press release.
Henry has been looking for a new editorial page editor since Ellen Clegg retired last year. She tried out business columnist Shirley Leung on an interim basis last August, but Leung left the post in May and resumed her column.
Venkataraman seems a perfect fit for the Globe’s lefty editorial page. She is a graduate of Brown and the Harvard Kennedy School. She served as senior advisor for climate change innovation in the Obama administration. She has traveled the world but grew up in Ohio. And she is a big-time talking head, who has a host of speaking engagements lined up through the beginning of November.
In a statement issued by the Globe, she said she wants the editorial pages to attract more of the voices of Boston. “The Editorial Board will be looking for ways to rejuvenate and reinvent our editorial content to meet our readers where they are, while upholding the robust journalistic values of fairness and tough truth-telling that are the Globe’s hallmarks and legacy,” she said in the statement. “As we approach 2020, I believe we have an enormous responsibility to be arbiters of credible and level-headed political discourse, and to help our readers navigate the political landscape to make informed decisions.”
