Veteran Boston Globe Editor to Take the Helm at BU Today, Bostonia, and Research

Doug Most has held several key positions at the Boston Globe, most recently as editor in chief of its BG BrandLab. Photo by Cydney Scott

After nearly 15 years at the Boston Globe, Doug Most will lead BU Today, Bostonia, and Research beginning July 2, when he becomes the University’s new assistant vice president and executive editor at External Affairs Marketing & Communications.

“The opportunity to join an institution like Boston University, which is so vital to the fabric of this city and yet is also recognized around the world as a leading research institution, is beyond exciting for me,” Most says.

Currently editor in chief of the Globe’s BG BrandLab content studio, Most previously served as the paper’s deputy managing editor, special sections and new initiatives, and Sunday magazine editor and deputy managing editor of features. Before joining the Globe in 2004, he was senior editor at Boston magazine.

At BU, Most will oversee a newsroom staff of 15 writers, editors, and production staff whose work appears in BU Today, Bostonia, Research, and a number of other University publications, both print and digital. He will also work collaboratively with other External Affairs units, including video producers, photographers, social media specialists, and the interactive design group.

“Doug brings from the Globe a mix of experience and skills that are perfectly suited to lead our publications group,” says Steve Burgay, BU’s senior vice president for external affairs. “He’s a superb writer, a collaborative editor, and he understands how to navigate in digital space.”

“His mandate will be to further our editorial presence online, more actively engage our audiences, especially students,” Burgay says, “and give our incredible staff journalistic license to pursue really interesting stories that define Boston University.”

Most, who began his career in New Jersey at the Bergen Record, is the author of two nonfiction works, Always in Our Hearts: The Story of Amy Grossberg, Brian Peterson, the Pregnancy They Hid and The Child They Killed (St. Martin’s Press, 2002) and The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America’s First Subway (St. Martin’s Press, 2014). The latter was an Amazon Best Book of the Month and a finalist for Best Non-Fiction Book from the Massachusetts Center for the Book, and it was made into an hour-long PBS documentary.

During his time at the Globe, Most says, he has seen firsthand its importance to the community over and over. “And just as the Boston Globe is vital to the fabric that makes up this town, so too is Boston University,” he says. “I wanted to go to an organization that has its own important broader mission, and BU certainly has that. It is the very definition of what a distinctly urban university should be—full of incredibly important research, a diverse student body from around the world, and tied closely to the city in which it lives and breathes.”

From his days as a sportswriter at George Washington University, he says, his career has always been about looking beyond the obvious to find important, creative ways to tell fresh stories. “I can’t wait to begin this new chapter and join such an impressive team, so we can collaborate together and push the stories unfolding every day at BU out in new and exciting ways,” he says.

Most succeeds Art Jahnke, who arrived at BU in 2006. During his tenure, he oversaw numerous award-winning publications and became a sought-after speaker on university communications. Jahnke will become senior contributing editor, lending his writing and editing talents to a variety of BU publications as needed.

“Art has been a friend and collaborator of mine for over 30 years,” Burgay says, “and in his 12 years at BU he has transformed our publications into consistently award-winning, online models of journalistic excellence. I’m delighted that he’s agreed to remain at BU and as our senior contributing editor.”

“It’s been a great experience,” Jahnke says. “It’s been a pleasure and an honor to work with the team that made BU Today, Bostonia, and the Research site national models of university communications.”

Joel Brown can be reached at jbnbpt@bu.edu.