Press release and photo used with permission of The New York Times
We are delighted to tell you that Nikita Stewart, a gifted leader who has brought a spirit of innovation, investigative energy and an expansive storytelling ambition to Real Estate, will be our next Metro editor.It is a homecoming of sorts for Nikita, whose first role at The Times was on the Metro desk, as a reporter covering city hall and later social services, homelessness and poverty in New York City, and then as an assistant Metro editor overseeing general assignment reporters.As Real Estate editor, she has boldly reshaped our definition of coverage. She shepherded dazzling features, ranging from an animated history of Barbie’s Dreamhouse to the story of a broker to New York’s elite who hid her racial identity. And she championed high-impact investigations, including Debra Kamin’s examination of abuses and misconduct within the industry.Sam Sifton, who worked closely with Nikita as assistant managing editor for Culture and Lifestyle, praised her “uncanny ability to make any story she touched just right for the team.”“Nikita married lifestyle coverage to accountability journalism in a package that was invariably beautiful and always compelling, and led her people with empathy and drive,” Sam said. “We’ll leave a light on for her always.”
Nikita believes in nurturing the craft of storytelling, and helping staffers, from young reporters to veteran journalists, do truly distinctive work. She is driven by ideas and big swings, and loves a fast-moving breaking news story as much as a surprising yarn. She thinks visually and embraces all storytelling platforms.In rejoining Metro, she will be teaming up with a creative and ambitious staff of reporters and editors, who have shown how to make New York stories reverberate in the region and beyond it.Nikita has deep roots in local coverage, and came to us after covering Cory Booker for The Star-Ledger in Newark and city hall for The Washington Post. As a reporter at The Times, she vividly chronicled the story of Troop 6000, a Girl Scout group founded in a Queens homeless shelter, which became an anchor for girls living lives of upheaval and a model for scouts’ troops nationwide. The reporting led Nikita to write a book, which was praised in The Times for “the rigor of Stewart’s reporting and thinking.”The story of New York now — its politics, personalities, economy and more — demands that same rigor and deftness, high standards and generous journalistic spirit. Please join us in congratulating Nikita, and welcoming an exciting new era for Metro.