Ezra Klein, Lauren Williams Exiting Vox

Williams is starting a nonprofit; Klein is heading for The New York Times

Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein speaks during SxSW Interactive on March 9, 2018 in Austin, Texas.
Jim Bennett/WireImage

For those of you keeping an eye on media company founders departing the institutions they helped build, it’s been a busy fall. Glenn Greenwald’s high-profile departure from The Intercept was the first of these, but not the last; not long afterwards, Matthew Yglesias announced his departure from Vox, the site he co-founded. Like Greenwald, Yglesias has set up shop at Substack, which has become something of a destination for high-profile and niche writers alike.

The latest news of media departures also involves Vox: in this case, co-founder Ezra Klein and editor-in-chief Lauren Williams are both moving on to new projects. At Axios, Sara Fischer has the news, citing it as “the latest examples of high-profile media executives to leave management roles in pursuit of more hands-on, creative careers.”

Williams’s next venture sounds incredibly promising: a nonprofit called Capital B, which — based on Axios’s report — is “focused on creating a news outlet for civic journalism tailored to Black communities.”

Klein, meanwhile, is headed for The New York Times; specifically, the Opinion section. There, he write a column and host a new podcast; the announcement of his new role states that he’ll begin in January. Vox has plans to launch a new interview-centric podcast to replace The Ezra Klein Show.

Both Williams and Klein seem poised for interesting new ventures; when the new year begins, it’ll be fascinating to see what both have in store.

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