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Amelia Lester, 26 Year Old Former Fact Checker, is the New Managing Editor of The New Yorker

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August 27, 2009 | 12:21 p.m
Amelia Lester, 26-Year-Old Former Fact Checker, is the New Managing Editor of The New Yorker

The New Yorker has hired Amelia Lester, most recently an editor at the Paris Review, as their new managing editor.

Ms. Lester, 26, a Sydney native who graduated from Harvard, used to be a fact-checker at The New Yorker and checked all-star writers Sy Hersh and Jane Mayer.

She's replacing Kate Julian, who is moving to Washington, D.C., where her husband just got a job.

In other transacational New Yorker news: Charles Stanley Ledbetter, the New Yorker's receptionist who was kicked out of his job after Conde Nast fired 13 remaining editorial receptionists earlier this month, will be taking a job in the magazine's fiction department.

Editor David Remnick has the luxury of making these moves without worrying about what McKinsey consultants think about them. As we reported first, Mr. Remnick is exempt from meeting with the McKinsey folks who are now in their sixth week at 4 Times Square.

More from John Koblin:

The Gilded Age of Conde Nast Is Over

Vogue, Traveler Get Thorough Exams, Courtesy of McKinsey

Post a Comment The Discussion

congrats on new mgr. Ed.

Submitted by gmcquade on Thu, 08/27/2009 - 19:07.

Wow, she's young and likely full of great energy. Look for some great changes to at the New York. Please add us to your
list Amelia and congrats on new post.

George@MayoCommunications.com

or send me your email and I will add you to our media list
that NY Times, WSJ and Forbes are all on.

Best wishes,
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V.P. MAYO Communications

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The Lousy Cartoons

Submitted by pepe nero on Fri, 08/28/2009 - 09:11.

Good, Now get a new cartoon editor.

Amelia Lester and The New Yorker

Submitted by dena79 on Wed, 09/02/2009 - 08:32.

Dear Editor:
The order of things is just so laughable in our country these days. There is an unimaginable number of bright, young graduates who, everyday, stand in endless lines at career fairs nationwide hoping to establish a positive rapport with grim and unwilling company representatives only to be turned down and sent away with the false message that they are inexperienced, ineligible, or simply unfit to handle their dream jobs. Meanwhile, decisions are being made behind closed doors over a Joe that the boss knows or a Jane who is already available inside the towering confines of a New York City corporate building. I sincerely appreciate Conde Nast’s adventurous sense of innovation and risk-taking in promoting fact-checkers and receptionists to significant editorial positions. I also feel the same appreciation about Elle’s new confusing sense of RV glamour! I am positive that these media giants have made discreet, well-reasoned decisions. I am just trying to call attention to certain closed-mindedness on the part of these decision makers, to their unwillingness to look beyond the walls of their offices for original contributions to their establishments.
I understand that luck is one of the biggest factors in determining how a person’s life turns out to be; a dazzling success or a shaming failure, but it is not right that it should be so. Luck, and its many other names of “good networking, inside knowledge, people-who-know-people policy” is an arbitrary judgment tool which elevate some and subdue many. Unfortunately, it is everywhere in our culture…

Amelia Lester and The New Yorker

Submitted by dena79 on Wed, 09/02/2009 - 08:33.

The order of things is just so laughable in our country these days. There is an unimaginable number of bright, young graduates who, everyday, stand in endless lines at career fairs nationwide hoping to establish a positive rapport with grim and unwilling company representatives only to be turned down and sent away with the false message that they are inexperienced, ineligible, or simply unfit to handle their dream jobs. Meanwhile, decisions are being made behind closed doors over a Joe that the boss knows or a Jane who is already available inside the towering confines of a New York City corporate building. I sincerely appreciate Conde Nast’s adventurous sense of innovation and risk-taking in promoting fact-checkers and receptionists to significant editorial positions. I also feel the same appreciation about Elle’s new confusing sense of RV glamour! I am positive that these media giants have made discreet, well-reasoned decisions. I am just trying to call attention to certain closed-mindedness on the part of these decision makers, to their unwillingness to look beyond the walls of their offices for original contributions to their establishments.
I understand that luck is one of the biggest factors in determining how a person’s life turns out to be; a dazzling success or a shaming failure, but it is not right that it should be so. Luck, and its many other names of “good networking, inside knowledge, people-who-know-people policy” is an arbitrary judgment tool which elevate some and subdue many. Unfortunately, it is everywhere in our culture…