Betsy Reed, editor of The Guardian US, will deliver the keynote address at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY’s 2025 commencement ceremony in December.
“Betsy Reed has been at the forefront of truly independent journalism for years,” said Dean Graciela Mochkofsky. “Her leadership at The Guardian US at a time when press freedom is being eroded exemplifies the kind of fearless work we hope our graduates will pursue as they enter the field. We are honored to have her speak to our graduating class on their most special day.”
Reed was named editor of The Guardian US in September 2022. Under her leadership, the publication has embarked on a major expansion, adding more than 50 journalists, launching new coverage areas including investigations, US soccer, and wellness, and growing its base of supporting readers by 60%. Reed’s visit comes as the Newmark J-School deepens its partnership with The Guardian US through Guardian US Scott Trust Fellowship, a nine-month paid fellowship for early-career journalists who recently graduated from the school.
Previously, she served as editor-in-chief of The Intercept for seven years, where the newsroom earned multiple awards, including a Polk Award, for agenda-setting investigative journalism. Before that, Reed was executive editor of The Nation, where she oversaw investigative reporting and edited political commentary.
“This is such an important time to be starting out in journalism,” Reed said in a video addressing the Class of 2025. “The news that we need to have a functioning democracy is increasingly fragmented, while people are increasingly being served information by AI. That’s why we need humans like you to produce journalism that people can trust—journalists who care about putting the news into the context people need to understand the world we inhabit, a world that frankly doesn’t often make a lot of sense. I’m so excited to see you in December.”
The 2025 Commencement ceremony will also feature remarks from student speaker Gibran Caroline Boyce, a Trinidadian-American journalist and Ida B. Wells Society Scholar specializing in international reporting and visual journalism, and alumni speaker Rommel Ojeda, a bilingual journalist and filmmaker who serves as community correspondent for Documented, covering immigration and Latinx communities in New York.