New Asia-Pacific leadership team is named

Colleagues, I’m thrilled to announce AP Asia-Pacific's new cross-format leadership team, which has some familiar faces — in fact, all familiar faces. The talented, Bangkok-based team that has been overseeing the Asia-Pacific news report for the past two years is transitioning into a cross-format structure that we expect will help us cover the news better — both in the three primary formats and in the digital space that lies in between them and holds so many creative possibilities. The Bangkok-based leadership team will look like this:

• Leon Drouin-Keith becomes deputy director for newsgathering. In this role, Leon will drive the Asia-Pacific news report, with an emphasis on strong video coverage, and will ensure that when news is breaking — and when it isn’t — the right people are in the right places doing the right things to help AP win. He will be a primary contact for the subregional news directors, who will continue to report to me.

• Charles Dharapak becomes deputy director for news production and presentation. Charlie’s extensive visual experience and focus on unique methods of storytelling will drive the output of our journalism and ensure that we not only have strong and comprehensive content produced in all formats, but that we will be pushing the envelope daily to create new ways of telling stories that fit not only our customers but the social and digital needs of their customers and users. In this role, Charlie will not only continue to oversee the region’s photo editors but also the Asia Desk in Bangkok.

• Celine Rosario becomes the regional director of planning, charged with adding a coherence to our ability to look ahead across formats and see what’s coming toward us — and handle it in the most creative and fiscally responsible way. Celine’s chief task in her first months will be to take the planning sensibility of our video operation — something in which she has excelled — and export that into text and photo planning so that we have the capacity to operate in lockstep in the field when it comes to making coverage plans. She will also bring the flexibility of a wise news leader to the role — an important trait when combining format operations into a whole.

All three will continue to report to me. In addition, I am pleased to announce two new subregional news directors who will be joining the Asia-Pacific leadership team:

• Ken Moritsugu, the Tokyo bureau chief, becomes news director for Japan and the Koreas, responsible for overseeing all coverage from that region. Ken’s success in pivoting the Tokyo operation toward cross-format work in the past three years has been crucial to AP’s continuing success in northeast Asia, and we expect this widening of his brief to double down on that good work. Ken will also work closely with APTN in London, which oversees our North Korea video operation.

• Bernat Armangue, the New Delhi photo editor and acting news director for the past 15 months, becomes news director for South Asia, overseeing India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and the Maldives. Bernat’s visual sensibilities have made the India photo report a thing to behold in the past three years, and his time spend as acting news director has shown that he is a strong cross-format journalist who understands a very complex region.

We’ll be reaching out in the next couple weeks to Asia-Pacific news leaders and others to talk more about how this new structure will work in the day-to-day operations. But one thing should be noted up front: While we are striving for continued excellence in all formats in this new structure, our imperative to win in video is front and center. The structure is designed to help us drive strong and responsive video journalism that both delights our existing customers and helps us move into new places as they emerge. And, of course, tight collaboration with and feedback from colleagues in London and New York will be baked into everything. I’ve attached brief bios of your colleagues who are taking on these new roles. I hope you’ll reach out and congratulate them and offer your assistance as we chart this fascinating new course for one of the world’s most dynamic regions and media markets. Sincerely, Ted