Jennifer Preston has worked at The New York Times for nearly 20 years as a reporter, editor and newsroom executive. In 2009, she was named the newsroom's first Social Media Editor, charged with the task of defining the value of social media for Times journalism and working as an evangelist for using social media tools within the newsroom.

In the last year, Jennifer has been focused on helping develop a new form of digital storytelling that combines original reporting and blogging with curated news video and user-generated content from social platforms.

She arrived in New York during the 1980's. She joined the staff of a startup newspaper, New York Newsday and took on the role as the city’s first woman police bureau chief. She went on to cover former Mayors Ed Koch, David Dinkins and Rudolph Giuliani. Her reporting on the municipal corruption scandal grew into a highly praised book about Bess Myerson. She has also won the New York Press Club’s Gold Typewriter Award for an investigation into the use of deadly force by off-duty police officers.