New Role for Nathan Willis

Nathan Willis is emerging into the sunlight.

After an epic run as the Washington bureau's night editor, Nathan is shifting to the dayside as the bureau's first news director. In his new role, Nathan will help manage our ever-expanding daily news report, overseeing the sked, coordinating within the bureau and across desks on breaking news, serving as liaison to the News Desk, Home team and Print Hub, ensuring a steady copy flow and backstopping assigning editors.

If that sounds like a lot, it is - but Nathan has shown himself to be a master juggler and to display calm, cool news judgment under pressure. Since becoming night editor in June 2021, Nathan adeptly handled everything the news gods threw at him, including 3 a.m. congressional votes, twilight court rulings and the leak of the Dobbs decision.

The return of a tumultuous president who does much of his governing after hours only brought more intensity to Nathan's role. Through countless nights and early mornings over the past year, he deftly oversaw coverage of a relentless flow of stories amid a flood of executive orders and social media pronouncements. Through DOGE, the Iran war, shutdowns, legislative battles and plane crashes, Nathan worked tirelessly to direct coverage, deploy reporters and editors, coordinate with the Live team and communicate with Steve Kenny in New York and the crews in Seoul and London. His dayside colleagues could always sleep soundly knowing that Nathan had everything under control.

Before becoming night editor, Nathan was the bureau's Sunday editor starting in 2019 and deputy weekend editor starting in 2017, a period when he edited hundreds of stories from the first Trump term, including the president's phone call asking Georgia's secretary of state to "find" him enough votes to win the 2020 election. He also helped coordinate coverage on all-hands Sundays, including the release of the Mueller report.

Nathan joined The Times in August 2015 from The Motley Fool, a financial media company, where he shepherded newsletters and online services as an editor. Before that he spent eight years at The Washington Post as a copy editor, deputy Metro copy chief and backfielder. He grew up in Kansas farm country and majored in journalism at the University of Kansas, where he was editor of The University Daily Kansan.

Nathan is starting his new role now, and will be working with us and with Charo over the next few months to refine the various aspects of the job.

Please join us in congratulating him.

- Dick and Matea