New York Times on Hunt for New Travel Editor

Unemployed media folks, polish up those resumes! One of the best gigs in the biz was just casually announced. NYT travel editor Stuart Emmrich will be taking over Trip Gabriel’s post as the Times’ Style editor, which means his post is now vacant. Emmrich took over the NYT travel section in 2004 and has been doing a pretty incredible job. We especially appreciate his work to keep at least the Sunday travel section fairly large, especially given the collapse of the Escapes section, which he helped start in 2002.

I’m not really sure how Emmrich’s travel background will translate to the Style section. While governing the Times’ travel coverage, Emmrich has said he focused on finding good writers, not necessarily good travel writers or even people with experience in travel coverage. But the Style section is different; while good writing is important, it almost seems more important to really know your fashion stuff or at least have the good sense to trust reporters who do. It should be interesting to see how the section changes with Emmrich at its helm. It could — and most likely will — change for the better. For his part, Gabriel is moving back into reporting and will be covering education for the paper. According to a letter from Bill Keller about the shift, Gabriel had been yearning to return to reporting for a long time, but he expects to have him back as an editor at some point in the future. Meanwhile, we’re excited — and a little nervous — to see who winds up at the helm of the travel section. Stay tuned for news as it breaks.