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Leading Neighborhood Newsgroup Names New Editor in Chief

| 02 Nov 2016 | 10:16
    Alexis Gelber, left, has joined Straus Media-Manhattan as editor in chief. Straus Media’s president and publisher, Jeanne Straus, is at right.
    Alexis Gelber, left, has joined Straus Media-Manhattan as editor in chief. Straus Media’s president and publisher, Jeanne Straus, is at right.

Alexis Gelber, a former top editor at Newsweek, has been hired as the new editor in chief for Straus Media-Manhattan. She took the helm of Straus Media’s eight weekly neighborhood publications Nov. 1.

During a 28-year career at Newsweek, Gelber worked as national affairs editor, assistant managing editor, managing editor of Newsweek International and director of special projects. Her supervised coverage of the 1992 and 2004 elections won National Magazine Awards, and she created franchises including “Health for Life” with Harvard Medical School and Newsweek’s first Women and Leadership series.

In addition, Gelber was the founding books editor of The Daily Beast. She was a fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, and has been an adjunct professor at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. She was also editorial director of The Human Face of Big Data, a book and multimedia project.

“We are incredibly excited to let loose Alexis’ many talents, not the least of which are a passion for compelling storytelling, a strategic vision about the future of local news and a lifelong attachment to Manhattan,” said Straus Media’s president and publisher, Jeanne Straus.

“I am thrilled to be joining Straus Media-Manhattan,” Gelber said. “These newspapers have a long and important legacy of reporting on their communities, and I look forward to engaging with readers as we build upon the strengths of these vital publications.”

Gelber is a graduate of Barnard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She and her husband live on the Upper West Side.

Straus Media-Manhattan publishes eight weekly newspapers in Manhattan: Our Town, The Eastsider, The West Side Spirit, The Westsider, Chelsea News, The Chelsea Clinton News, Our Town Downtown, and The Downtowner. The newspaper group also publishes nine weekly newspapers and local news websites covering towns along the New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania border.