Clifford J. Levy (born June 15, 1967, inNew Rochelle, New York) is deputy publisher of twoNew York Times Company publications, theWirecutter andThe Athletic.[1][2] He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and was considered one of the main architects of the digital transformation of The New York Times in the 2010s.[3][4] In 2024,The Washington Post andCNN both tried to recruit Levy to run their newsrooms, but he ended up staying atThe Times.[5][6]
Levy joinedThe New YorkTimes as a news assistant in 1990 and was promoted to reporter in 1992.He served as chief of the Albany bureau as a political reporter, City Hall correspondent and Newark correspondent. Beginning in 2000, he was a special projects reporter for the Times' Metro desk.[7]In 2002, he wrote a series "Broken Homes" on the abuse of mentally ill adults in state-regulated homes.[8] In 2003, he won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting,[9] as well as the George Polk Award.He broke a story onNew York StateMedicaid fraud in 2005.[10]
Levy joined the international staff of theTimes in 2006 asMoscow bureau chief.[11][12] He received his second Pulitzer Prize in 2011 in the category of International Reporting for his reporting oncorruption in Russia in cooperation withEllen Barry. The jury cited their "dogged reporting that put a human face on the faltering justice system in Russia, remarkably influencing the discussion inside the country.".[13] Shortly before, in March 2011, Levy was named deputy editor of theTimes's Metro section.[7]
In 2013, two years after becoming an editor, Levy became the editorial lead on NYT Now,[14] an app created by The Times that aimed to attract new readers by presenting a curated list of stories for a cheaper price than a full subscription.[15] TheTimes made the app free in 2015 after acknowledging that it had failed to attract a significant number of new subscribers.[15] In August 2016, theTimes shelved the app.[16]
Levy later was promoted to the masthead, serving as assistant managing editor and deputy managing editor,[17][18] overseeing The Times's digital platforms. He led a number of initiatives to push the newsroom to embrace digital innovation and focus on digital audiences, including launching an experiment where editors and reporters were barred from viewing the desktop version of The Times inside the newsroom in order to get them to concentrate on mobile readers.[19]
On at least two occasions, Levy was promoted into roles overseeing troubled parts of theTimes. In 2018, he was named editor of the Metro section three months after the former editor, Wendell Jamieson, resigned following an internal investigation.[20][21] In January 2021, Levy returned to the masthead as deputy managing editor, taking on a leadership role advising the audio department a month after theTimes admitted to major errors in its flagship"Caliphate" podcast.[22][23] One source told theNew York Post that "Cliff was sent there to clean up the mess.”[24]
Levy was reported to have been among several candidates to succeedDean Baquet as executive editor, but did not receive the role, which went to managing editorJoe Kahn in April 2022.[25]
After Kahn's promotion to executive editor, Levy remained on theTimes's masthead as a deputy managing editor with a role said to focus on "ethical standards and journalistic independence, as well as training for editors throughout the newsroom."[26][27]
On December 15, 2022, theTimes announced that Levy would leave the newsroom and be appointed deputy publisher of theWirecutter andThe Athletic.[1]
In 2024,The Washington Post andCNN both tried to recruit Levy to run their newsrooms.TheNew Yorker reported that Levy was the “top candidate” to becomeThe Post’s executive editor, but he then pulled out of the process.[5]Axios said Levy “withdrew from consideration for the top newsroom job over the paper's strategy.”[28]
Axios reported thatThe Post’s publisher, William Lewis, who had been picked by owner Jeff Bezos, had failed to articulate a compelling vision for turning aroundThe Post. Lewis later kept Matt Murray, interim executive editor, in the role, without making an announcement.
At the same time,CNN sought to hire Levy as part of its search for a “high profile” candidate to lead digital innovation in its newsroom,The Times reported.[6]
Levy was Kahn's representative in controversial contract negotiations with theTimes's union, which lasted for more than a two years after the union's contract expired in March 2021.[29]
On December 7, 2022,Times journalists staged a one-day walk-out to protest what they said was the company's unwillingness to offer fair proposals, including on wages.[30] It was the first such labor action since 2017 and the first to last a day or longer since 1978.[30]
In late December 2022, it was reported that Levy would be appointed deputy publisher of The Athletic and Wirecutter, but that the move was "dependent on the pace of the labor talks."[31] Insiders said the decision to move Levy from the newsroom to the business side was "in part recognition from publisher A.G. Sulzberger of Levy’s work dealing with the tense and drawn-out negotiations."[31]
On May 23, 2023, the company and the union announced a deal for a new contract, ending more than two years of contentious negotiations, theTimes reported.[32] “This deal is a victory for all union members who fought for a fair contract,” the union said.
Levy said the contract "shows how much we value the contributions of NewsGuild members to The Times’s success.”
On June 6, 2023, the union said more than 99% of members had ratified the contract.[33]
Levy is married to the documentary filmmaker Juliane Dressner. They have three children, Danya, Arden and Emmett, and live inPark Slope,Brooklyn. He is a member of the Park Slope Food Coop, where he serves as an editor of the Coop's Linewaiter's Gazette.[34] In Park Slope, his children attended P.S. 321.
When Levy and his family lived in Moscow while he was a foreign correspondent, their children were enrolled in a local Russian school called theNew Humanitarian School.[35] He wrote about the experience for The New York Times Magazine, and Dressner produced and directed an accompanying short documentary for The Times's website that won a National Magazine Award.[36]
Previously the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, No Edition Time from 1953–1963 and the Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting from 1964–1984
