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Jennifer Preston is an American journalist who is now the Vice President for Journalism at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. She wrote Queen Bess more than 30 years ago while a young City Hall reporter in New York, covering the municipal corruption scandal that led to the downfall of former Miss America Bess Myerson.
Preston was born in London, England and moved to the United States as an infant with her Irish-born parents. She grew up outside of Boston, Mass. Inspired by how her immigrant parents valued the role of journalism to hold the powerful to account, she become a journalist. She graduated from Boston University with honors, applying her new reporting skills first in Philadelphia as a reporter for the Philadelphia Bulletin and Philadelphia Daily News. Then to New York City, where she worked for 30 years, starting at New York Newsday and later joining The New York Times. At New York Newsday, Preston covered some of the biggest NYC stories in the 1980's. She was the first woman Police Bureau Chief at One Police Plaza in NYC, covering major crime stories and producing investigative reporting that included an award-winning data journalism project examining the use of deadly force by off-duty police officers. She spent seven years in Room 9 at New York City Hall, covering Mayor Ed Koch, David N. Dinkins and Rudolph Giuliani, eventually becoming City Hall Bureau Chief. It was while reporting on the municipal corruption scandal in the 1980's that she first met Bess Myerson, the former Miss America who was accused by then U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani of using her city job to bribe a state judge to provide favorable treatment in her boyfriend's divorce trial. Known in the tabloids as the "Bess Mess," Preston pursued the story, covered the federal trial and became so fascinated with Myerson's stunning achievements throughout her life that she set out to publish a biography of Myerson's rise and fall. After the book received excellent reviews in The New York Times and other outlets, Preston returned to reporting and editing at New York Newsday. When the newspaper closed in 1995, she joined the staff at The New York Times. She worked in various reporting and editing assignments, including covering New Jersey's first woman governor, Christine Todd Whitman before moving into a senior executive newsroom role in the Times' Office of the Executive Editor. Preston closely followed how technology was changing storytelling and reader engagement. This led to her appointment in 2009 as the first social media editor at the Times and a pioneering role covering the impact of social media on society. While at the Times, she taught digital journalism at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and the Craig Newark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. In late 2014, she left the Times for an extraordinary opportunity to use philanthropy to advance the future of journalism. She joined the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation as the vice president of journalism. At the urging of Knight's president, Alberto Ibarguen, she spent months traveling around the country and learning about the depth of the decline in local journalism. This led to Knight's new strategic focus on local journalism and new funding efforts that include accelerating the digital transformation of legacy newspapers; the successful annual NewsMatch matching gifts program for nonprofit journalism; the Knight Commission on Trust, Media and Democracy and the American Journalism Project, a new venture philanthropic fund that is part of Knight's five-year $300 million Journalism and Democracy Initiative launched in early 2019. Preston is committed to one day taking on another book project with her longtime friend and literary agent, Philippa Brophy at Sterling Lord Literistic. For now, she is trying to do her part in support of local journalism. Preston is married to Christopher J. Conway, an op-ed editor at The New York Times. They are the blessed parents of twins, Matthew Conway of New York City and Grace Conway of Cambridge, Mass.
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