Lyons takes managing editor role at Times Union

Veteran journalist to head enterprise and investigations coverage

Brendan J. Lyons, a veteran journalist whose stories have ranged from police misconduct to ethical misdeeds at the state Capitol, has been named as the

Times Union’s managing editor for enterprise and investigations.

In addition to managing investigative projects across the newsroom, Lyons will continue to direct the work of the paper’s Capitol reporters and develop a training curriculum for investigative work that will be applied across the newsroom and beyond. He will also help develop investigative projects with other Hearst papers.

In addition, Lyons will oversee the work of a new position at the Times Union: the two-year Joseph T. Lyons Fellowship, which will bring in an early-career reporter with a special mission to create investigative journalism covering overlooked communities. The fellowship is named for Lyons’ father, who served as the Times Union’s publisher through the 1980s.

A Times Union reporter since 1998, Lyons was recently honored with the Michael Hendricks Journalist of the Year Award from the state Associated Press.

Times Union editor Casey Seiler said in a Monday note to the newsroom that Lyons’ new role will provide “the resources to help shape the next generation of great investigative reporters.”

He joins a newsroom leadership team that also includes Gary Hahn, managing editor for features, sports and special publications; Susan Mehalick, managing editor for news; and Erica Smith, the Times Union’s digital managing editor. Hahn and Mehalick are longtime Times Union editors promoted to their new roles earlier this year. Smith came aboard in the spring from the Virginian-pilot in Norfolk, Va.