The Atlantic Hires Yara Bayoumy As National Security Editor

As The Atlantic continues its newsroom expansion, editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg announced today the hiring of Yara Bayoumy as a senior editor leading national security coverage. Bayoumy joins The Atlantic from Reuters, where she has worked as a foreign correspondent—reporting extensively from the Middle East and Africa—and national security editor. She begins at The Atlantic next month, and joins at a time when The Atlantic is doubling its team covering politics and national affairs.

In a memo to staff announcing Bayoumy’s hire, Goldberg and editor of TheAtlantic.com Adrienne LaFrance wrote: “Yara is a brilliant editor and reporter with a great feel for Atlantic journalism, and she has a strong sense of where and how major stories develop. She has a talent for getting scoops, as well as for identifying patterns and larger themes behind the day’s most complicated stories.”

At The Atlantic, Bayoumy will work closely with politics editor Vernon Loeb to build and run an expanding team of national security reporters. She’ll also work with London-based editor Prashant Rao and the reporters on the global desk as The Atlantic expands coverage into Europe.

Bayoumy is currently deputy national security editor at Reuters, where she has worked since 2004. Her reporting on conflict, militancy, and regional politics as a foreign correspondent took her to more than 20 countries across the globe, including Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Somalia, and Afghanistan. For the past two years, she has been based in Washington D.C., where she lead a team of award-winning reporters who have broken news on major stories related to Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and North Korea.

The Atlantic is in the midst of a company-wide expansion, which will see the addition of 100 new staff and investments across its divisions and platforms, with the most significant investment in the newsroom. Recent editorial hires include Jemele Hill as a staff writer on sports, politics, and culture; Edward-Isaac Dovere as a staff writer covering politics; and Amanda Mull as a staff writer covering health.