Innovative Sports Editor Leaves the Times ⇒

I had never heard of Joe Sexton before today, but he’d been behind some of the biggest New York Times stories in recent memory, including the epic “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek” digital spread. And now he’s leaving the grey lady.

Joe Hagan at New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer got a few great quotes out of him in a just-published profile. On “Snow Fall”:

“The ways to have impact are to produce exclusive news, write memorable stories, and evince a sense of daring and fun,” says Sexton. “And if that formula fails, then we’re all in fucking trouble.”

On leaving the Times:

“If you are not asking yourself every couple of years how to once more scare yourself to death, then you are living something of the coward’s life,” he says. “Ain’t no room for cowards in journalism at this moment in time.”

He’s moving on to work at ProPublica.