Rolling Stone hires Daily Beast’s Noah Shachtman as top editor

Rolling Stone magazine has hired Noah Shachtman to serve as its new top editor, the company announced on Thursday.

Shachtman has served as the editor-in-chief of the online news website the Daily Beast since 2018, during which time it aggressively covered former President Trump’s administration, the Jefferey Epstein sex trafficking scandal and news relating to other media outlets.

“It’s got to be faster, louder, harder,” Shachtman told The New York Times of his plans for Rolling Stone. “We’ve got to be out getting scoops, taking people backstage, showing them parts of the world they don’t get to see every day.”

Shachtman fills a role vacated by Jason Fine, who stepped down earlier this year for a different job overseeing the company’s podcasts, video series and other digital journalistic ventures.

Gus Wenner, Rolling Stone’s president and chief operating officer, oversaw Shachtman’s hiring.

“I love that his strength is in an area where we need to get stronger,” Wenner told the Times of his new top editor. “But he’s certainly got the skill set on long-form pieces, and that’s going to continue to be super important, too.”

Wenner said five years from now he wants the magazine his father founded in the late 1960s to be “at the forefront of content creation across any platform: films, podcasts, the website, the magazine.”

Shachtman will be succeeded at the Daily Beast by Tracy Connor, the Daily Beast’s executive editor.

“Rolling Stone changed my life. Its music journalism helped push me to play in bands for real. Its conflict reporting gave me a north star to aim for when I was a national security reporter. I can’t fucking wait to help this incredible team write its next chapter,” Shachtman said in a tweet on Thursday. “Y’all know how much I love The Beast. I’ve never had a job so fulfilling, so fun, and that delivered such an impact. I’ve never had colleagues more dedicated to their mission. Tracy Connor is the best journalist I know. She’s going to do an amazing job with this crew.”