PHILADELPHIA _ Gabriel Escobar has been named editor and vice president of Philadelphia Media Network, placing him in charge of the entire news report for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com, the company announced Monday.
Escobar, 60, also will play a leading role in driving the newsroom's strategic planning and serve as a key member of the company's executive team. Previously the managing editor for news, he will report directly to Stan Wischnowski, PMN's top newsroom executive.
"I am honored and humbled by this appointment," Escobar said. "This news enterprise has a great history of great journalism. As with other media companies like ours, we are also facing great challenges. That's why we are in the process of restructuring the newsroom to meet those challenges. We have a very talented staff and I have no doubt that we will succeed."
The appointment is effective immediately.
As part of the transition, Inquirer editor William K. Marimow and Daily News editor Michael Days will take on new roles.
Marimow, 69, becomes PMN editor-at-large and vice president, a role in which he'll serve as a lead writing and editing coach for the Investigations, Power & Policy and Regional Coverage teams of reporters. He will be part of the team of executives planning to roll out a metered online subscription model later this year, crucial to the company's financial success. Marimow also will be a newsroom contact for the Philadelphia-based Lenfest Institute for Journalism, which seeks ways forward for news companies in a troubled economic landscape.
Including his time leading The Baltimore Sun, Marimow has been the editor or managing editor of a major news organization for 24 years.
Days, 63, will become PMN editor for reader engagement and vice president, ensuring that the news organization connects with the Philadelphia metropolitan community in new and meaningful ways. He will collaborate with the team assigned to build PMN's audience, and with the leaders of 10 new news-coverage teams. The aim is to align the news organization with readers across the eight-county circulation area.
Wischnowski announced the changes as staffers gathered in the center of the newsroom. He said the moves were designed to reset and recalibrate the newsroom to do great things, even at a time when many traditional news organizations struggle financially, beset by drops in newspaper circulation and advertising revenue and a glut of free news online.
He called Marimow "for decades the true heart and soul of the Inquirer," a place where he excelled as reporter, New Jersey editor, city editor and editor. He first became editor of the newspaper in 2006.
"It's time for a change," Marimow told the assembled journalists, "and the right person is here to lead the charge."
Escobar told about 50 gathered journalists: "I have worked with most of you, I admire all of you."
Days' new job will see him become the public face of PMN, meeting and talking with readers across the region about news and news-gathering, seeking to better understand how the news organization can serve the community.
He has spent 10 years as editor of the Daily News and served briefly as managing editor of the Inquirer during a time of ownership upheaval. Days began his career as a reporter, working in Minneapolis, Rochester, N.Y., and at the Louisville Courier-Journal. He worked in the Philadelphia bureau of the Wall Street Journal before coming to the Daily News.
"I think Gabe was a perfect choice to bring the newsroom together," Days said.
The elevation of Escobar to PMN editor is part of a major newsroom restructuring intended to deliver the most timely and comprehensive news report to readers across the region. The new structure seeks to clarify editing and reporting roles and concentrate the newsroom on subjects that are most important to readers.
Escobar is a chief architect of the company's digital news strategy.
He becomes editor at a critical time: The company is preparing to begin charging money for its online content, a step seen as critical to its future viability. Meanwhile, earlier this month, journalists and other union members at the Inquirer and its sister publications decisively rejected a 3-year contract offer that would have provided solid, same-cost health insurance but eliminated seniority protections in the event of a layoff.
Across the country, news organizations face enormous financial pressures. Their newsroom leaders are challenged to produce quality journalism under what are often tight staffing and economic constraints.
"Gabe has the vision, leadership and outstanding news judgment necessary to move our news report forward," Wischnowski said. "I'm confident that in this new role he will elevate our journalism and accelerate our transition to a digital-first newsroom."
Escobar, known to everyone in the newsroom as "Gabe," is routinely among the first people to arrive in the newsroom in the morning and the last to leave at night.
He's also known for a deft and certain touch in editing stories, and for the ability to drive the coverage of big stories, including the pope's visit and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Escobar was long a reporter himself, in Philadelphia and elsewhere. At the Washington Post, he worked as a foreign correspondent in Latin America, as a national reporter covering immigration, and as a crime reporter in a city that had plenty of crime.
He was city editor of the Post from 1999 to 2005, and also worked at the Hartford Courant, the Philadelphia Daily News, and the Dallas Morning News, a joint position where he served on the editorial board and also as a journalism professor at Southern Methodist University. Escobar also was previously associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research agency dedicated to the study of the Latino population.
Escobar was born in Bogota, Colombia, and moved with his family to New York City when he was 8. He earned a bachelor's degree in creative writing from Queens College CUNY and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. He is married to Louisa Shepard, a news officer in the communications office at the University of Pennsylvania.
"Our goal remains to build the best regional metropolitan newsroom in America," Wischnowski said.
He noted that both Days and Marimow have played key roles in Pulitzer-winning coverage _ Marimow himself won two as an Inquirer reporter _ and have hired and coached scores of staff members who now help form the backbone of the newsroom. Those hires include Escobar.
"They've maintained the vitality and strength of the Inquirer and Daily News through years that would have undone lesser leaders and publications," Wischnowski said. "I'm pleased to announce that Mike and Bill will both have key leadership roles going forward."
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