She is the former public editor of The New York Times, serving as the "readers' representative" and reported directly to Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. She was the Times' fifth public editor, or ombudsman, after Daniel Okrent, Byron Calame, Clark Hoyt, and Arthur S. Brisbane, and was the first woman to hold the post. She began her tenure on September 1, 2012, joining The New York Times from The Buffalo News, where she had been editor and vice-president. Her first column in The Washington Post ran on May 22, 2016.