Jennifer Preston is social media editor at The New York Times, a new role created last year to help expand the use of social networks to improve Times journalism and deepen engagement with users on and off NYTimes.com.

A veteran reporter and editor, Preston oversaw the print and online content for four Sunday suburban metro sections before taking on the social media role last May. She spent most of her reporting career covering politics and government. At New York Newsday, she was City Hall bureau chief and covered the Koch and Dinkins administrations and as deputy metro editor, she oversaw coverage of the Giuliani administration.

After New York Newsday folded in 1995, she moved to the Times as a political reporter and State House bureau chief in New Jersey.

In 1999, Preston left reporting for a newsroom-wide management role as the deputy to Deputy Managing Editor William Schmidt. She managed multiple joint newsroom and business-side projects over six years and worked closely with newsroom department heads on staffing and budget issues. It was not the first time she left journalism for a business role. At New York Newsday, she served as circulation marketing manager, reporting to the vice president for strategic planning and marketing. In 1998, she helped lead The Times in one of its first cross-departmental teams to recommend a 10-year circulation strategy for New York City and the region.

A graduate of Boston University, Preston began her reporting career in Philadelphia as a reporter for now defunct Philadelphia Bulletin and later for The Philadelphia Daily News. She has won several awards for investigative reporting, including the New York Press Club’s top award for public service for a series on the use of deadly force by off-duty officers.

She is the author of a book, Queen Bess, about the rise and fall of former Miss America Bess Myerson, who was caught up in New York City’s municipal corruption scandal during the 1980s. She is an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.