New York, June 10, 2013 -- BuzzFeed announced today it has hired Miriam Elder as its Foreign Editor. Elder, who is currently Moscow Bureau Chief for The Guardian, will be responsible for expanding and shaping the social news site's foreign and overseas coverage, building a team of reporters who will break news and cover major world events.
"Miriam is a great journalist and social web native who has an great sense both for news and for the next big story, as her coverage of the recent political protest in Russia — on the web, and on Twitter — has shown. Her deep roots in international news will be vital to bringing this coverage to a new medium and through new forms," said Ben Smith, BuzzFeed's Editor-in-Chief. "Foreign coverage is one of the last spheres where new media haven't competed aggressively with newspapers and television networks. We see an opportunity to reinvent international news for the social age and Miriam is the right person to do it," Smith continued.
"I'm excited to join a team that has been at the forefront of shaping news in the social age," said Elder. "Understanding the increasingly interconnected world is more important - and more possible - now than ever before. With its proven understanding that news coverage is part of a wider social conversation, BuzzFeed is the ideal outlet to deliver foreign news coverage in all its heft, fluidity and, at times, absurdity."
Miriam Elder currently covers politics, business and culture in Russia and the former Soviet Union for the Guardian, where she was the first correspondent to profile the punk protest band Pussy Riot. She previously worked for AFP and the International Herald Tribune in Paris. Her work has appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, the Financial Times, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, BusinessWeek, the International Herald Tribune, Foreign Policy and The Atlantic. A native New Yorker, she holds a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University and an MA from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Elder will be based in New York and begins July 25, 2013.
Media Contact:
Ashley McCollum
BuzzFeed, Press Manager
ashley.mccollum@buzzfeed.com
347.977.1411
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About BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed is the leading media company for the social age, intensely focused on delivering high-quality original reporting, insight, and viral content across a rapidly expanding array of subject areas. Our technology powers the social distribution of content, detects what is trending on the web, and connects people in realtime with the hottest content of the moment. Our site is rapidly growing and reaches more than 60 million monthly unique visitors. Jonah Peretti, founder & CEO of BuzzFeed, previously co-founded the Huffington Post. Ben Smith is its Editor-in-chief, Jon Steinberg is its President & COO and Kenneth Lerer is the Executive Chairman.