Tennessean names Michael A. Anastasi VP for news, executive editor

Michael A. Anastasi, a journalism leader with decades of experience who this spring led a team of reporters to the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, will begin leading The Tennessean newsroom later this month, the company announced Monday morning.

Anastasi will serve as vice president/news and executive editor of The Tennessean and the TN Media network, which includes The Leaf-Chronicle in Clarksville and The Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro.

"Following an extensive search, I'm very pleased we were able to find and recruit Michael Anastasi to Nashville," said Laura Hollingsworth, president of TN Media and publisher of The Tennessean.

"Michael brings high journalistic credentials and years of demonstrated excellence and award-winning work. During the interview process, it was clear he would bring vision and innovation, passion for our work and people and a laser focus on sophisticated coverage that exceeds reader expectations," Hollingsworth said. "He understands in today's competitive world, we must be excellent and relevant."

At a meeting of reporters and editors Monday morning, Anastasi said he was honored to join The Tennessean's leadership team.

"We do this for the difference we can make in our communities," he said. "It's a calling, and I think we're going to do some really special things in the coming weeks, months and years."

Anastasi and his wife, Julie, have two teenage daughters, Grace and Alexandra. Moving to Middle Tennessee will reunite him with close family members who live in Franklin and in Nashville.

"There's a lot of exciting things happening in this city," he said. "This is the place where I want to be."

A professional editor for nearly 30 years, Anastasi comes to The Tennessean from the Los Angeles News Group, a consortium of nine daily and six weekly newspapers, websites and associated digital products serving Southern California, where he was senior vice president and executive editor. Anastasi also served as a senior leader and regional editor for Digital First Media, which owns the Los Angeles News Group.

During his time in Los Angeles, Anastasi focused on expanding enterprise and investigative reporting while aggressively growing digital audience across multiple platforms. He has led the Los Angeles News Group to several national accolades, including its first Pulitzer, awarded in April for investigative work into a local school district that revealed rampant corruption. The Los Angeles News Group also won a 2015 National Headliner Award for investigative journalism, the Scripps Howard Award for community journalism and the Associated Press Media Editors First Amendment Award.

Before becoming editor in Los Angeles, Anastasi was managing editor of The Salt Lake (City, UT) Tribune.

Before taking that post in 2004, Anastasi was sports editor at the Los Angeles News Group and Los Angeles Daily News. He worked as an editor and reporter in Northern California earlier in his career.

Active in professional journalism organizations, Anastasi is past president of the Associated Press Sports Editors. As president of APSE, he founded that organization’s Diversity Fellowship Program, which seeks to create more female and diverse candidates for newsroom management positions. He has a long history of working on behalf of diversity in the journalism industry and continues to run the APSE program.

Anastasi was recently elected to the board of Associated Press Managing Editors and has been appointed chairman of the First Amendment Committee.

Anastasi studied international relations at the University of California, Davis, and holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from California State University, Long Beach. He’s been a member of Long Beach’s alumni advisory board since 2007 and presently teaches a course in digital reporting techniques at the university.

Anastasi replaces Stefanie Murray, who resigned from The Tennessean in August. He will begin his post in Nashville on Nov. 30.