Los Angeles Times Names Sara Yasin Managing Editor

Sara Yasin has been named a managing editor for the Los Angeles Times. In making the announcement, Times Executive Editor Kevin Merida said that Yasin will oversee the daily news operation, reporting into him, beginning April 18.

“Sara brings deep experience with how independent reporting can be a force for good in the world and an obsession with getting more people to engage with high-quality journalism to her work,” Merida said. “We’ll look to Sara to help us both elevate the traditional journalism on which the L.A. Times has built its prize-winning foundation and to pilot new forms of storytelling as a regular practice in our news coverage.”

Yasin is currently managing editor of BuzzFeed News, where she has been instrumental in building new audiences and experimenting effectively to widen story consumption across all platforms. During her tenure as managing editor, BuzzFeed News won its first Pulitzer Prize, in 2021, for International Reporting for an innovative series on China’s mass detention of Muslims. She was also heavily involved in the rollout of the groundbreaking FinCEN Files investigation, a Pulitzer finalist in the same category that year, in which BuzzFeed partnered with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and more than 100 media outlets to produce complex stories that revealed the role of some of the world’s largest banks in facilitating money laundering and human trafficking.

“I am thrilled to join the L.A. Times and work with such an extraordinarily talented group of journalists,” Yasin said. “I am excited about Kevin Merida’s vision for the L.A. Times and honored to be part of the team that’s redefining what it means to be one of America’s great newspapers.”

Yasin started at BuzzFeed in 2015 on the social media team and rose through the ranks in what became the News Curation team — a combination of the mobile, homepage and social units. She was named managing editor in 2020 and, in that role, promoted a culture of experimentation, built a system to improve communication among the various teams in the newsroom and worked closely with editors to smartly position and package BuzzFeed’s biggest enterprise stories. She also oversaw the Inequality desk, helping to establish its vision and structure, as well as the Art, Copy and Photo staffs. Prior to BuzzFeed, she worked at GlobalPost as its social media editor and at Mic as an editor.

Yasin will be joining managing editors Shani Hilton and Scott Kraft at The Times and, in addition to the daily news operation, will oversee the Photo and Data and Graphics teams.

“Sara has an instinctive understanding of the internet and a reputation for being a creative, empathetic and collaborative leader,” added Merida. “We’re excited to welcome her to the L.A. Times where she’ll help us drive news coverage and deliver it to our audiences in California and beyond.”