Brian McGrory led the news organization for a decade until he departed in early 2023.
Dec. 15, 2025Updated 12:44 p.m. ET
The Boston Globe said on Monday that a former longtime editor, Brian McGrory, would return to helm the publication.
His return was announced in an email to the staff by Linda Henry, The Globe’s chief executive officer. Last week, The Globe’s current editor, Nancy Barnes, told the newsroom that she would step down this month after nearly three years in the job and become an editor at large.
Ms. Barnes, a former National Public Radio executive, was the first woman to run The Globe and the first top editor handpicked by Ms. Henry and her husband, John, who bought The Globe from The New York Times Company in 2013. Ms. Barnes, 64, said in a note to the newsroom that it was “time for me to take a break from the daily firestorm of news.”
Mr. McGrory, also 64, was the editor of The Globe for a decade until he departed in early 2023 to become the chair of Boston University’s journalism department, where he started a local news initiative. He continued to write for The Globe as an opinion columnist and served on the board of directors for The Baltimore Banner, a nonprofit newsroom, as well as interim chief executive and interim editor of The Banner.
“Brian, as many of you know, brings a strong record of leadership and innovation from his prior time at The Globe, and will return with an enhanced set of experiences from his current work in academia and from the increasingly vital sector of nonprofit news,” Ms. Henry said in the email.
Mr. McGrory will start in his role on Jan. 5, Ms. Henry said, noting that he is returning in a permanent capacity, not as an interim editor.
