Longtime Jewish Telegraphic Agency publisher Marc Joffe is stepping down after 17 years, it was announced on Friday morning.“Media is changing quite a bit,” Joffe told The Jerusalem Post. “I put in a long stint and it was time for a change. I turned 50 in January and am looking at the next phase in my career.”During his tenure as the head of the news organization, Joffe oversaw its entry into the digital era, initiating projects such as the creation of its Web site and digitizing the 93-year-old agency’s archives.He will be replaced by Ami Eden, the editor-in-chief of the New York-based news wire for the past two years.Eden was unavailable for comment at press time. However, in a statement he said he was “humbled and honored at the opportunity to lead a media organization that has been on the front lines of one of the most monumental centuries in Jewish history.”Joffe’s announcement comes at the end of what has been a tense year for JTA, during which it has had to cut down on staff and find additional sources of income that include selling online ads and asking readers for donations.
The outgoing publisher spoke with the Post about the shift in JTA’s business model and the changes print journalism has undergone since he first joined the news wire as an editor in 1987.“Back then we still had typewriters and print setters,” Joffe recalled. “We are still serving the newspapers and our wire service is still important but over ten years ago we realized the world was changing and we decided to serve readers directly. We began to do that by developing a Web site fairly early in 1997. At the end of the day JTA’s mission is educating the Jewish people.”Eden promised to take “aggressive steps” to continue JTA’s mission to inform the Jewish world, find new sources of revenue, attract younger readers and involve editorial staff more closely
JTA publisher ends 17-year tenure for new career move
Joffe oversaw organization's entry into the digital era.
