Julie Pace Named Top Editor of The Associated Press

The Related Press on Wednesday named Julie Tempo, its Washington bureau chief, as its new prime editor, a job that offers her oversight of a information group with 250 bureaus in 100 nations.

Ms. Tempo, 39, will instantly change into The A.P.’s government editor and senior vp, succeeding Sally Buzbee, the corporate stated. Ms. Buzbee left the group, which she had led since 2017, to take the chief editor job at The Washington Submit in Could.

In a cellphone interview, Ms. Tempo known as The A.P. “a little bit of an unsung hero of the journalism business.”

“I perceive that typically there may be an outdated impression of The A.P. or a sense like we’re only a primary wire service placing out uneven sentences,” she stated. “If that’s your impression of The A.P., then you definitely haven’t been taking note of The A.P. We produce simply extremely high-level, subtle reviews throughout all codecs on daily basis.”

Ms. Tempo is the third consecutive feminine government editor of the 175-year-old information group, which gives roughly 730,000 articles, 70,000 movies and a million images annually to the greater than 15,000 retailers and companies that subscribe to its content material. Kathleen Carroll held the job from 2002 by means of 2016.

Ms. Tempo, who’s from Buffalo, joined The A.P. in 2007 as a video producer and multimedia political journalist after beginning her profession at a tv community in South Africa and placing in a stint at The Tampa Tribune in Florida. She aspired to be a world correspondent understanding of Africa, she stated, however issues turned out otherwise.

“I simply actually obtained into politics, and I’ve been in Washington ever since,” Ms. Tempo stated.

After serving as a White Home correspondent, she grew to become the Washington bureau chief in 2017. In that job, she expanded The A.P.’s fact-checking operation and printed explanatory articles on how the information company counts votes and tasks the winners of presidential elections and native races, a job it has performed since 1848.

“I’m actually happy with the work that we did throughout that interval to attempt to break by means of what in the end ended up being quite a lot of disinformation,” Ms. Tempo stated, including that The A.P.’s fact-checking articles “are constantly a few of our most-viewed tales, virtually each week.”

“Being a fact-based information group doesn’t imply that everyone on each aspect of a difficulty will get equal listening to, will get equal voice,” she continued. “In sure circumstances, the details are simply actually clear, and we need to ensure that we’re amplifying the details and never muddying the details. So Covid vaccines are protected. Local weather change is actual. There was no widespread fraud within the U.S. election. These aren’t political positions; these are fact-based positions.”

Ms. Tempo plans to maneuver to the corporate’s dwelling metropolis, New York, along with her husband and younger baby within the fall. She stated she would give attention to holding The A.P. aggressive on breaking information, whereas additionally ensuring it digs up extra tales of its personal.

Daisy Veerasingham, The A.P.’s chief working officer, who will change into its president and chief government in January, stated in a press release that Ms. Tempo’s Washington expertise, background in video and connections with international employees would drive The A.P. “into the long run.” Ms. Veerasingham additionally praised Ms. Tempo’s “sturdy, collaborative management and distinctive information judgment.”

The A.P., which not often attracts media consideration for its interior workings, confronted criticism this 12 months from many journalists, together with members of its personal employees, when Emily Wilder, a younger journalist in its Arizona bureau, was dismissed three weeks after she was employed.

A sequence of Twitter posts by Ms. Wilder on the battle between Israelis and Palestinians attracted consideration from the Stanford School Republicans and different on-line critics who publicized her pro-Palestine activism as a pupil at Stanford College. Ms. Tempo stated the episode had prompted inside discussions and a overview, nonetheless in progress, of The A.P.’s social media coverage and the way the corporate handles the net harassment of its journalists.

“We’ll have extra to say on these fronts quickly,” she stated. “Individuals nonetheless look to The A.P. for issues like The AP Stylebook to know use this phrase or this phrase. I need us to be seen equally as a pacesetter on social media utilization and on on-line harassment.”