While Newsweek and Sidney Harman continue their tricky search for a top editor, the one they’re trying to replace has a new job.
Jon Meacham, Newsweek’s former editor-in-chief and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, is heading to Random House, the book publisher announced on Wednesday.
Meacham will become executive vice president of the Random House Publishing Group, responsible for “acquiring and editing nonfiction titles” that focus on “history, religion and biography.” He’ll report to Random House president and publisher Gina Centrello, who called Meacham “a dream hire.”
He left Newsweek after it was sold to Harman, who has had trouble finding someone to fill the slot.
Random House has become a second home for ex-magazine editors of late. Last month, the company hired Ruth Reichl, former editor of the defunct Gourmet magazine, as an editor-at-large.
Meacham’s Andrew Jackson biography “American Lion,” won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. He also wrote the best-selling “Franklin and Winston” that was published by Random House in 2003.
