AP leadership changes: Phillips, Daniszewski get new posts

NEW YORK – The Associated Press announced key changes to its news leadership Thursday, naming Ian Phillips as its vice-president for international news and his predecessor, John Daniszewski, as editor at large for standards.

Phillips, currently AP’s Middle East news director, will be responsible for all of the organization’s editors, reporters, photographers and video journalists outside the United States. Phillips has led efforts to co-ordinate coverage across all news formats in his previous regional posts and will take charge of expanding that approach to all of AP’s international operations this year.

Co-ordination across formats — including text, video and photos — is already employed by AP journalists in places including Russia and regional hubs in London, Cairo, Mexico City and Bangkok. Phillips, who headed AP’s first all-formats region in eastern and central Europe, will work to expand it in a push to speed and simplify decision-making by news leaders in the field.

“Ian is a passionate champion of this collaborative approach, quick to share and celebrate the successes it has brought us already,” Kathleen Carroll, AP’s executive editor and senior vice-president said in a note to the staff announcing the changes.

Phillips will take over from Daniszewski, a veteran of overseas reporting who has led AP’s international text news coverage for more than a decade. In his new role, Daniszewski will be in charge of addressing the many questions on ethics and standards involved in daily news coverage in the U.S. and around the world, as well as working on special reporting projects.

Both Phillips and Daniszewski will be based in AP’s New York headquarters, assuming their new positions on July 1.

Phillips, who is British, joined the AP in 1994 in Argentina, where he had previously worked for Reuters and The Buenos Aires Herald. After reporting from Latin America, he worked for the news co-operative in Paris, London and New York. In 2004, he returned to London as deputy editor for Europe and Africa, before being named head of the Prague-based hub for coverage of eastern and central Europe.

He has directed coverage of the Middle East for the past three years, part of a team that launched Middle East Extra, a premium video service. Phillips, who speaks Spanish, French and German in addition to English, is currently part of the 2016 Sulzberger Leadership Program at Columbia University.

Daniszewski rejoined the AP in 2006 from the Los Angeles Times after spending 20 years as a reporter and editor in more than 70 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. His leadership of AP’s international news coverage included a ramping up of enterprise reporting and the launch of an international investigations team.