A black woman was leading the Buffalo Daily when the city was still grieving Racist supermarket massacre that shook the city this year as well as The economy and population show signs of recovery from decades of economic decline.
Sheila Rayam, 55, an executive at Gannett Newspaper, was appointed executive editor of The Buffalo News, The newspaper announced on Tuesday. She is the first Black journalist and second woman to hold the position in the newspaper’s 142-year history. News was purchased in 2020 by Lee Enterprises from its longtime owner, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
“I went to college in Buffalo, and I’ve always considered the city my second home,” says Rayam of the city in Western New York, perhaps best known to the rest of the country for its NFL Championship. team, its remarkable snowfall records and, of course, its wings.
Ms Rayam said she was excited to work in a veterans newspaper with a “strong reputation for great journalism”. Her appointment, effective August 22, follows the retirement of Mike Connelly, a veteran journalist who served as editor of The News for a decade.
It also comes a few months after the May 14 mass shooting at Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly black neighborhood in East Buffalo. An 18-year-old white gunman who espoused white extremist ideology has been charged in a shooting that left 10 people dead and three injured, nearly all of them Black, in one of the deadliest racist massacres in recent US history.
The attack sent the city reeling.
“Looking at it from a distance, I was heartbroken,” Ms Rayam said, adding that the city was still undergoing treatment. “But I hope that we will be part of the discussion to help the community grow and grow together.”
In her new role as executive editor, Ms. Rayam said, she plans to continue to lead the newspaper to cover the entire city. “We’ll be looking at everything from food insecurity, to public safety, to how residents support each other.”
The News, with a circulation of approximately 56,000 copies, is one of the largest newspapers in the state outside of the New York City area, but like many other medium-sized regional newspapers, it is ravaged by the pandemicand had to cut wages and raise wages for employees.
Margaret Sullivan, communications columnist for The Washington Post, is also a member of The News First top female editor before serving as the publicity editor of The New York Times, described The News as a “dominant force” that continued to perform essential public services and surveillance journalism.
“I’m definitely excited to see that Sheila’s date is going to make history,” Ms. Sullivan said in an interview. “It’s good to watch.”
In the announcement, Tom Wiley, president and publisher of The Buffalo News, said he was proud that Ms. Rayam would be its eighth editor, and that she would help lead the organization “into an exciting future.” taste”. Currently, Ms. Rayam, from Rochester, about 70 miles northeast of Buffalo, is Gannett’s executive editor of Mohawk Valley news operations, including The Utica Observer-Dispatch and The Times Telegram in Herkimer.
She has also worked at The Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, and graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Ms. Rayam said she is looking forward to working with journalists who are “passionate about serving their communities; about telling great stories. “
And, she said, she’s thrilled to be so close to the Buffalo Bills. “I am a big fan of the Bills.”
