New York Magazine editor-in-chief David Haskell and deputy editor Alexis Swerdloff announced today that Lauren Levy is joining the Strategist, the magazine’s site for helping people shop the internet smartly, as lead editor. Levy will set the editorial vision and strategy for the site’s next chapter, overseeing a team of obsessive shopping journalists who find the products that are actually worth buying. She begins on January 6, 2025.
Levy joins from Apple; as an editor at Apple News, she curated and edited article collections, sent notifications, and helped develop the strategy for the Apple News+ subscription service. Her hire marks a return to the magazine where she began her career in journalism as an intern in 2013 and served as a key member of the Strategist team from its founding in 2016, rising to senior writer. When Levy left the magazine in 2018, Swerdloff wrote to the staff, “Lauren has consistently impressed us with her ability to sniff out the new and the cool before anyone else, while at the same time quietly and steadily becoming the Jane Mayer of shopping — using her rigorous reporting skills to get to the bottom of truly any shopping-related question.”
“During the process of searching for a new editor of the Strategist, it became clear to me that as the world of online shopping recommendations changes rapidly around us, it was of the utmost importance for me that the person leading the Strategist have zillions of new ideas, and a fearlessness to try new things, yet have a deep understanding and appreciation of what the Strategist is at its core and the type of journalism it makes. There is no one who fits that description more than Lauren,” says Swerdloff.
In addition to her work at Apple News and New York, Levy has written for Elle, Wired, Billboard, Fast Company, and many other publications. She studied journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and lives in Manhattan.
The Strategist takes its name from New York’s National Magazine Award–winning print service section that devotes several pages in every issue to helping readers navigate living in New York City. Shopping recommendations have been in New York Magazine’s DNA since the very first issue in 1968.
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About New York Magazine
New York Magazine obsessively chronicles the ideas, people, and cultural events that are forever reshaping our world. Part of Vox Media since November 2019, the beloved and influential New York brands include the groundbreaking biweekly print magazine New York and six thriving verticals: Intelligencer, delivering national news and sharp commentary on politics, business, technology, and the media; the Cut, covering style, self, culture, and power; Vulture, the premier site for culture news, criticism, and service; the Strategist, dedicated to shopping the internet smartly; Curbed, covering cities and city life; and Grub Street, home to food news and authoritative restaurant criticism.