Katy Balls is leaving The Spectator after ten years to join The Times and Sunday Times as Washington editor.
The Times said Balls will be “pivotal” to its political coverage across the entire week, providing insights on the stories coming out of the US and their impact on the UK and the wider world with readers on both sides of the Atlantic. She will also be a columnist.
Balls, who will join The Times in April, said: “The opportunity to cover the Trump presidency for Britain’s finest newspapers is an honour. But most of all I want to give readers the very best of my journalism and get under the skin of American politics at a time where it has never been as fast-moving, unpredictable or consequential.”
Balls has been political editor at The Spectator for the past two years, having previously worked as its deputy political editor, political correspondent and diary editor.
She also hosted a fortnightly podcast for The Spectator: Women With Balls, speaking to leading women about “their passions, their battles and what makes them tick”.
Balls leaves The Spectator several months after its change of ownership to GB News investor Sir Paul Marshall‘s Old Queen Street Ventures Ltd and subsequent arrival of new editor Michael Gove. She follows former editor Fraser Nelson who joined The Times as a weekly columnist in January.
Times editor Tony Gallagher said: “Katy’s deep understanding of politics and her ability to connect the dots between global events will ensure our readers receive the insightful and compelling coverage they’ve come to expect from The Times.”
And Sunday Times editor Ben Taylor added: “Katy’s exciting appointment comes at a time of extraordinary change in the United States. Her vibrant, multi-media brand of journalism will deliver the incisive, agenda-setting coverage our readers, listeners and viewers expect.”
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