Guardian US announces Margaret Sullivan as new weekly columnist

Margaret Sullivan

Beginning this week, Margaret Sullivan, one of America’s leading journalists and media commentators, will join the Guardian US to write a weekly column on media, politics, culture and the urgent moral and political debates of the moment.

Sullivan, an award-winning writer known for her trenchant, deeply insightful columns on media and culture, joins the Guardian after concluding a six-year stint at The Washington Post, where she was a media columnist from 2016 to 2022. Prior to that, she served as the public editor of The New York Times, and as chief editor of the Buffalo News, her hometown paper. She is also author of the acclaimed book “Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy,” and the recently published memoir “Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) from an Ink-Stained Life.” She teaches in the public policy school at Duke University where she is the Egan visiting professor for 2023.

She joins other regular Guardian US columnists including Robert Reich and Arwa Mahdawi, who regularly contribute to the publication.

Katharine Viner, Guardian editor-in-chief, said: “Margaret is one of the most influential voices in American media, respected equally for her integrity, her sharp analysis, and her distinguished, glass-ceiling-breaking career. I’m thrilled she’s joining the Guardian to provide our readers with her intelligent commentary.”

Betsy Reed, editor, Guardian US, said: “There’s no one I would rather read on the intersection of media and politics than Margaret Sullivan, and I am delighted that Guardian readers will be treated to her bracingly clear analysis on a weekly basis. In a world overflowing with misinformation and too-hot takes, Margaret brings a cool intelligence and unsparing eye to even the most confusing and difficult issues, never shying from controversy or punting on a hard call. Guardian readers in the US and around the world will be all the wiser after absorbing her unmissable insights on the country’s most pressing issues.”

Margaret Sullivan said: “As a longtime admirer of the Guardian, I’m thrilled to begin this new partnership and to share my views on its vibrant opinion pages. I know I’ll be in great company there. The Guardian’s distinctive business model is part of the appeal because it encourages fearless, public-spirited journalism that’s available to all.”

About Guardian News & Media:

Guardian News & Media (GNM) publishes theguardian.com, one of the world’s leading English-language news websites. Traffic from outside of the U.K. now represents around two-thirds of the Guardian’s total digital audience. In the U.K., GNM publishes the Guardian newspaper six days a week, first published in 1821, and the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, The Observer.

Guardian US is renowned for its Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into widespread secret surveillance by the National Security Agency, and for other award-winning work, including The Paradise Papers. Guardian US has bureaus in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New Orleans, covering the climate crisis, politics, race and immigration, gender and more.