By Ellen Clegg
Sewell Chan’s illustrious career has taken him across the country and across the pond. He has served as a reporter and editor in Washington, New York, London, Los Angeles — and, most recently, the nation-state of Texas as editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune.
Now, he’s returning home. Chan, who grew up in New York City, will join the Columbia Journalism Review, which is published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, as executive editor in September. In business since 1961, CJR — now primarily digital — has been without a top editor since Kyle Pope left in 2023 to become executive director of strategic initiatives at Covering Climate Now. New York Times media writer Katie Robertson has more here.
The Texas Tribune is featured in our book, “What Works in Community News.” Because co-author Dan Kennedy and I wanted to visit every community we wrote about, I flew to Austin in July 2022 during the tail end of a COVID spike to interview Chan and outgoing CEO Evan Smith at the Tribune’s downtown headquarters.
Although the office had gone hybrid and was sparsely populated, both men were generous with their time, recounting the history of the pioneering digital site and talking passionately about their mission. Among many other cogent observations about our business, Smith also schooled me about the “blessings of the 40 Acres,” a nickname for the University of Texas’ Austin campus. And my interview with Chan was a reunion of sorts: He wrote for The Boston Globe’s City Weekly section, which I edited, when he was a student at Harvard University.
The only child of parents who immigrated from China, Chan grew up in New York City and attended Hunter College High School, a publicly funded school known as a destination for bright and creative students. He began his professional journalism career as a local reporter at The Washington Post in 2000 and moved on to a long stint at The New York Times, where he was a metro reporter, Washington correspondent, deputy op-ed editor and international news editor.
In 2018, he moved west to become a deputy managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, reporting directly to Times executive editor Norman Pearlstine, who was installed after billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the Times that year and began rebuilding the beleaguered newsroom. Chan ultimately became editorial page editor at the Times, where he directed coverage that won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing in 2021 for editorials on the California criminal justice system. Chan and his staff published a noteworthy editorial that apologized for past failures in coverage on race, as part of a larger series.
But Soon-Shiong proved to be a reckless and erratic owner, and Chan ended up leaving to start over in the Lone Star State. When he began his job at the Tribune in October 2021, Chan wanted to focus on disinformation, the role of media, and the state of democracy. That meant getting outside the blue bubble of Austin.
“I really feel that the crisis in our democracy is not going to be fixed from the coasts,” he told me. “We need to help restore America from the inside out, if you will, and from the bottom up.” He wanted to diversify the Tribune’s readership and re-center “the Texas part of the Tribune. We’re not The Austin Tribune, we’re The Texas Tribune.”
He also wanted to venture beyond political coverage, explaining that “there are a lot of issues — from broadband access to health care — that are particular to rural areas. A lot of publications don’t cover them very well.”
He added: “We are not trying to change Texas. We would like, however, to improve the functioning of democracy in Texas, and we do that by shining the light of accountability and by holding power to account.” Chan was able to add bureaus in outlying towns during his three-year tenure — although the Tribune also weathered its first round of layoffs and a union drive.
Before I interviewed Smith and Chan, I had already played tourist in Austin: I waited 90 minutes in line on a 100-degree day to sample the brisket at Franklin Barbecue. (Worth it!) I toured the State Capitol, which has oil portraits of Texas luminaries like Vice President John Nance Garner, David Crockett, U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan and Gov. Ann Richards.
Chan suggested that I continue my sightseeing and offered to play host. So the day after our interview, he picked me up in his car and we headed for the LBJ Presidential Library. It’s an active research center, and a tour guide told us that Lady Bird used to come into her office at the library, which was on exhibit, to work. We also stopped in at the Harry Ransom Center to see one of the few intact copies of the Gutenberg Bible. The lure of movable type runs deep.
Chan’s leadership comes at an important moment for CJR. At a time when news outlets compete with any number of platforms and pretenders slinging disinformation, the journal is an essential voice that can remind the public of the role of the fourth estate in sustaining a democratic way of life that sometimes feels all too fragile.
What Works 