The Atlantic Elevates Adrienne LaFrance to Executive Editor

Adrienne LaFrance, who has been the top editor of TheAtlantic.com since the summer of 2017, is now executive editor of The Atlantic, editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg announced today. Swati Sharma and Sarah Yager are promoted to managing editors. Sharma will run the day-to-day coverage at TheAtlantic.com, and Yager will become operations chief for The Atlantic.

“Adrienne has proven herself to be one of the most remarkable editorial talents of her generation,” said Goldberg. “I’m consistently impressed by her ability to juggle numberless responsibilities; by her capacity for wise decision-making; by her acute editorial judgment; and by her sangfroid.”

Over the past year of ambitious growth at The Atlantic, Goldberg has been restructuring his editorial leadership team by making promotions and creating new roles and responsibilities. Women now occupy the majority of the senior-most newsroom positions at The Atlantic.

LaFrance will oversee TheAtlantic.com; all cross-platform initiatives; and The Atlantic’s video and podcasting teams, which are led by Atlantic Studios executive producer Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg and executive producer of Atlantic podcasts Katherine Wells. LaFrance came to The Atlantic in early 2014. She covered technology, politics, and the media, and was the editor of the Science, Tech, and Health sections, before becoming editor of the site. Before joining The Atlantic, she was a breaking news reporter and covered some of the biggest stories of this decade for WBUR Boston, Honolulu Civil Beat, and Nieman Lab, including Hurricane Sandy, the Boston Marathon bombing, and the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre.

Sharma, who moves from deputy to managing editor, will guide the daily reporting at TheAtlantic.com and oversee all of the site’s sections—Politics, Culture, Technology, Ideas, Science, Family, Global, Health, and Education—and their teams. She joined The Atlantic in January 2018, working with LaFrance to manage day-to-day editorial operations and breaking news, and to coordinate some of The Atlantic’s most ambitious projects. She was previously deputy general assignment editor at The Washington Post, and before joining the Post in 2013, she covered nightlife and hyperlocal news at The Boston Globe.

In her new role as managing editor, Yager will oversee editorial operations at The Atlantic and be the primary editorial lead on budgeting and personnel. She had been deputy executive editor, working to spearhead the newsroom’s most ambitious cross-platform projects, and previously was managing editor of The Atlantic magazine. Yager started at The Atlantic as a fellow, and has been a researcher, fact-checker, and story editor.