Buzzfeed News has appointed its former investigations editor Mark Schoofs as only its second editor-in-chief in the US.
Schoofs left the news website in 2018 to train the next generation of investigative journalists at the USC Annenberg School of Journalism in Los Angeles.
He will continue his role with the journalism school after rejoining Buzzfeed, creating a partnership between the two that will see the launch of an internship and Buzzfeed founder Jonah Peretti teaching a course on internet culture and digital media.
Schoofs said he was “thrilled” to return to Buzzfeed News as its “tough, rigorous and fearless” journalists are “the best in the world, hands down”.
Peretti said: “I’m so excited to welcome Mark back to Buzzfeed, because I know how deeply committed he is to ensuring that Buzzfeed News remains the best place on the internet for free, high quality news, and reaches even greater heights.
“I’m also confident, even during these tough times, that Buzzfeed News will be in the best possible hands under Mark’s leadership.”
Schoofs replaces Buzzfeed News founding editor Ben Smith, who left the website in January, eight years after helping to launch its US newsroom, to join the New York Times as a media columnist.
Before joining Buzzfeed, Schoofs led a team of investigative journalists at non-profit newsroom Pro Publica and started his career editing LGBTQ newspaper The Windy City Times in Chicago.
He has won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the Aids epidemic for the now-defunct The Village Voice newspaper, and shared in another while at the Wall Street Journal for reporting on 9/11.
The Buzzfeed News investigations team has been shortlisted twice for the prize, including for their investigation into mysterious deaths linked to Russia on British and American soil.
Picture: Buzzfeed
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