POLITICO names Sally Goldenberg senior New York editor

Sally Goldenberg

Announcement from Executive Editor, Joe Schatz and Editorial Director, States, Ryan Hutchins:

When POLITICO launched a New York operation in 2013, one of the first hires was Sally Goldenberg. Sally and her brand of urgent, scoop-driven reporting set a benchmark for what great political journalism looks like in the city and helped define our approach statewide. A decade later, we’re thrilled to announce that Sally is returning to the Empire State after spending the year covering the presidential election. She’ll fill a critical new position that was tailor-made for her: Senior New York Editor.

Sally will oversee our entire New York state editorial team — a move that reflects the increasing centrality of New York to POLITICO’s publishing goals in the coming years, and the interconnectedness of our city and statewide coverage. Sally’s appointment is one in a series of moves we’re making — including the hiring of three New York Playbook writers earlier this year — that will better position us to own New York politics and policy in the next decade. Just as we’ve done in California, we’re looking to organize the New York team around our quest to deliver impact in everything we do. In this new role, Sally will lead our staff in New York City and Albany, with New York Editor Joe Spector reporting to her. Together, they’ll focus us on driving the conversation in both cities and on several statewide policy and political beats. Sally will report to Ryan Hutchins.

Joe will continue to oversee our reporters in Albany, where he is based, and will be charged with working across the full New York team to execute on this new vision. We expect to have a particular focus on Albany in 2024, where our talented crew pumps out scoops every session, always leading the pack. Joe will look to build on the work he’s been doing there since he and Julia Marsh started in New York back in January 2022. Joe’s been single-handedly leading the New York team since the summer, when Julia took on her new role in Sacramento.

Before joining the Politics team, where she covered Ron DeSantis’ campaign this year, Sally spent five years as our City Hall bureau chief in New York. She joined POLITICO in October 2013 to cover Mayor Bill de Blasio — then under the Capital New York banner — and also spent three years covering the city's housing and economic development agenda. Previously, Sally covered the New York City Council and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg for the New York Post. She also reported for the Staten Island Advance, the New Jersey Star-Ledger and the Hillsborough Beacon.

Her prior journalistic successes in New York are hard to count. To name a few: An award-winning investigative series by Sally and her colleagues exposed extensive problems with New York City’s recycling efforts at a time when two mayors were running for president emphasizing climate change. Sally also helmed the bureau’s coverage of how the city government managed those dark, early days of the pandemic, with detailed reporting of political fights between the mayor and his health officials.

And in 2021, under Sally’s leadership, the bureau dominantly covered the open race for New York City mayor. Their reporting included the discovery that Eric Adams was often hiding his whereabouts, a revelation that defined the final days of the primary. The reporting from Sally and her colleagues forced Adams to invite the entire press corps on a dubious tour of his supposed apartment and led to dozens of other stories exploring his secrecy. Once he became mayor, Sally discovered his frequent evenings out with a friend with a criminal past, a secret office he maintains in a high-security building near City Hall and his practice of forcing agencies to show him photographs of potential hires.

Please join us in congratulating Sally and cheering on the New York team.