(New York, N.Y. – Jan. 24, 2013) ProPublica editor-in-chief Stephen Engelberg announced today the appointment of Joe Sexton, a distinguished editor and reporter at The New York Times for more than two decades, as one of ProPublica’s senior editors. Sexton will manage a stable of staff reporters and oversee some of the organization’s major investigations. He will begin work at ProPublica in February.
Sexton, 53, joins ProPublica after having had a hand in three recent Pulitzer Prizes — for breaking news, feature writing and investigative reporting. Sexton, who most recently served The Times as its sports editor, ran the paper’s Metropolitan desk for five years. And once upon a time he was a pretty fair reporter and writer, his work as a sportswriter included in The Best American Sports Writing, 1992.
“Joe Sexton is one of the finest editors in the business,” said Engelberg. “His steady hand and inspirational leadership have been behind some of the biggest stories in New York and the world of sports in the past decade. His Metro staff’s reporting led to the resignation of then-New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, and their subsequent work forced Spitzer’s successor, David Paterson, to abandon his bid for election. Sexton’s tenure as sport editor was marked by enterprise and innovation. John Branch’s devastating series on a hockey enforcer, “Punched Out,” was a Pulitzer finalist last year. And the sports department’s work with the paper’s graphics and multimedia teams last month produced “Snow Fall,” a project that set a new standard for online storytelling.
“We are delighted to add a journalist with Joe’s track record and passion for accountability journalism to our editorial team.”
“Steve Engelberg is an editor of courage and creativity,” Sexton said. “The team he has helped put together at ProPublica has been engaged in some of the country’s most distinctive work of ambition and impact. It’s an honor and opportunity to join their pioneering efforts.”
ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. In 2010, it was the first online news organization to win a Pulitzer Prize. In 2011, ProPublica won its second Pulitzer, the first ever awarded to a body of work that did not appear in print. ProPublica is supported primarily by philanthropy and provides the articles it produces, free of charge, both through its own website and often to leading news organizations selected with an eye toward maximizing the impact of each article. For more information, please visit www.ProPublica.org.
