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Torontoist Leadership Changes in the New Year
It is with a mixture of pride and sadness that we announce some leadership changes coming to Torontoist at the end of the month.
Hamutal Dotan, currently our Senior Editor, will be assuming the role of Editor-in-Chief, effective January 1. David Topping, our long-serving Editor-in-Chief, is moving on to become the Toronto Editor over at our friends, OpenFile.
Torontoist is extremely lucky to have Hamutal at the helm moving forward. She joined the site in 2008 and made an immediate impression on the editors and staff. Her depth of knowledge in municipal politics, as well as her unbounded love of the city’s arts and cultural scenes, made her a valued contributor from the start. As she started taking on more responsibility, her astuteness as an editor; her skill at working with our diverse staff of writers, photographers, and illustrators; and her tireless dedication to making Torontoist better became an important part of our growth over the last two years. Among her many accomplishments, Hamutal spearheaded the development of Torontoist’s politics hub, which was the single best resource for information on the councillors and mayoral candidates running in the election this year. Her writing on subjects like the proposed Melancthon quarry expanded Torontoist’s horizons editorially, and was an important factor in our recently being recognized for Best News Coverage at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards.
David Topping has served as Editor-in-Chief or co-Editor-in-Chief (first with Ron Nurwisah, and later with Marc Lostracco) for the last four and a half years. During that time, Torontoist’s traffic has grown ten-fold, to the point where our readership equals or betters most of the established traditional media outlets in the city.
During David’s tenure, Torontoist has gone from being an obscure little blog to a recognized and important part of Toronto’s media landscape. David’s dedication to producing a top-quality, professional publication has allowed us to undertake initiatives such as our content partnership with the Globe and Mail, and has lead to Torontoist being consistently recognized with awards: we’ve been named Toronto’s best blog by NOW Magazine, received more Canadian Online Publishing Award nominations than any other website, and this year became the first ever online-only publication to win a National Magazine Award.
As we enter 2011, the future for Torontoist has never seemed brighter. Under Hamutal’s leadership, we will continue to explore and report on the parts of the city that other media outlets ignore. We will be a fearless and dogged advocate for public transportation, for the arts, and against short-sighted cost-cutting at City Hall.
We will continue to be your smart, funny, and totally plugged-in friend for everything happening in Toronto. More than anything, we will continue to listen to you, our readers, and figure out how to better serve, entertain, and inform you.
Happy holidays, and thanks for reading Torontoist,
Ken Hunt
Managing Publisher