New York Times names Elizabeth Kennedy new White House editor

The New York Times has hired Elizabeth Kennedy of The Associated Press as its new White House editor.

Kennedy starts in the new role April 12, according to an announcement by Washington bureau chief and assistant managing editor Elisabeth Bumiller. She reports to Bumiller and replaces Bill Hamilton, who left the paper earlier this year to become an executive editor for publisher Celadon Books.

Kennedy was the AP deputy Washington bureau chief for the last 3 1/2 years and also previously managed its bureaus in Bangkok, New Delhi, Beirut and Nairobi, according to the announcement.

In addition, Kennedy reported for the AP in Somalia, Burundi and Kenya and was also a New York editor for the media outlet. 

The Times has made several staffing moves, as of late. Also on Thursday, it announced it was moving senior political editor Caryn Wilson to its weekend audience team in a post-election year drawdown of political journalists. 

The Times’s live news coverage team also has recently added several new journalists and earlier in the year the paper reworked its White House lineup.