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Liz Seymour (Washington Post photo)
Former Detroit News reporter Liz Seymour has been named managing editor of the Washington Post, the publication announced Thursday.
Seymour joins three other managing editors at the paper including N. Scott Vance, a former reporter and editor at the Detroit News.
Seymour, a New York native, started as an intern at the News in 1993 before being hired full time as a general assignment reporter in the Dearborn bureau. She later was a reporter in the Oakland County bureau, where she met her husband Bob Ourlian. He eventually became the national security editor in the Washington bureau of the Wall Street Journal.
At the News, Seymour also ended up covering a referendum to have SMART bus service in the suburbs, a beat she loved.
In July of 1995, Seymour went on strike at the News and worked for the Detroit Sunday Journal, the weekly strike paper that had reporters and editors from both the Detroit News and Free Press.
She eventually headed west to work as a reporter at the Los Angeles Times where her husband also ended up working. In 1999, they both moved to Washington where she was hired at the Post as a reporter on the Virginia desk.
Before her latest promotion, Seymour, a 25-year veteran of the Post, was Deputy Managing Editor, overseeing news operations and planning.
In an article announcing her new appointment, the Post wrote:
Prior to her time as Deputy Managing Editor, Seymour led a 90-person team as Executive Features Editor, revamping The Washington Post’s approach to lifestyle and service journalism. Under her leadership, The Washington Post won its first National Magazine Award and dozens of recognitions from the Society of Features Journalism, setting a record for the most awards won by a publication from 2015-2020. She has also served as an Editor across the Weekend, Local Living and Home sections. Seymour began at The Washington Post as a Reporter for its Metro desk in 1999.
“No one is a fiercer advocate for Post journalism than Liz,” Executive Editor Matt Murray said in an internal note to the newsroom that was published in the Post story. “We all know Liz as a steady, compassionate, tough, thoughtful, and experienced leader, who, at any given moment, seamlessly and coolly balances at least 20 different crises and situations, many of which are never visible to most of us but all of which call for sensitivity, care, high standards and her blend of judgment, firmness, and compassion."
In that story, Seymour offered this comment:
“The formidable Washington Post newsroom is unlike any other I’ve experienced. It’s been an honor to contribute to and lead its excellence in journalism, and I plan to continue that commitment in this new role.”
