Mark Jonathan Joffe has assumed responsibility as editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, William Frost, president of the international Jewish news service, announced this week.
Joffe, 27, directs the agency’s daily and weekly reportage of news affecting Jews around the world. He previously served as news editor of the Jewish Exponent of Philadelphia, an award-winning Jewish weekly newspaper and one of the largest.
JTA, founded in 1917, has bureaus in Jerusalem, Paris and Washington, in addition to New York, with reporters stationed in Montreal, Toronto, Tel Aviv and the major European capitals.
In addition to providing news and analysis directly to some 100 weekly Jewish newspapers six days a week, JTA publishes a Daily News Bulletin, the weekly Community News Reporter, feature stories and the Weekly News Digest. JTA also distributes weekly editorial cartoons and news photos from Israel.
JTA is organized as a non-profit corporation whose board of directors includes representatives from dozens of Jewish communities around the world.
The new editor said he is “hoping to build on JTA’s 70-year tradition of excellence in Jewish journalism. I’d like JTA to be thought of as a communications link for Jewish communities around the world and as the most authoritative source of Jewish news anywhere.”
To do so, in Joffe’s view, means attention to more than facts. “I feel JTA ought to provide not only moment-to-moment coverage of Jewish news, but also stories that provide context and analyze the impact of these developments on the Jewish community around the world,” he explained.
BROADER COVERAGE
The new editor also said he intends to broaden the scope of JTA’s coverage. “I would like to expand coverage of North American Jewish news, but this will require the cooperation of the Jewish weekly newspapers,” he said.
He envisions a more formalized cooperative arrangement in which JTA would serve as the conduit for distributing stories written by individual newspapers to JTA subscribers throughout the world.
Joffe said he also hopes to expand news services provided on the electronic wire. “That means Jewish newspapers who have not computerized their operations ought to think more seriously about doing so,” he said. “Otherwise, they’ll simply be missing out on some of the best copy JTA provides.”
Joffe was born in New Brunswick, N.J., and grew up in the suburbs of Cincinnati, where he served as chapter president of the local Young Judaea group.
He attended Haverford College in Philadelphia, where he edited the campus newspaper and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. In 1981, he won the James A. Finnegan Fellowship Foundation Award, the top prize in a statewide competition for internships in Pennsylvania state government. A college intern at the Jewish Exponent, Joffe was hired full-time as organizations editor in 1982 and became news editor in 1984.
In more than five years at the paper, he covered assignments in Philadelphia, New York, Washington, San Francisco, Toronto, Israel and the Soviet Union.
In addition, he served as manager of the Exponent’s computer systems, helping guide the company through two technological transitions. He also used that expertise in implementation of the re-design of the newspaper, accomplished this summer.
Joffe said he is excited to be assuming a post vital to the international Jewish community. “It’s a responsibility I take seriously,” he said, “and it’s one that I share with a staff that fortunately includes many capable individuals.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
