Howard U Grad Charanna Alexander Named NY Times Weddings Editor

Charanna, who has deep experience working on desks across the newsroom and who has played a significant role in expanding the coverage of the Weddings desk to explore the full range of relationships, begins on Tuesday.

Charanna came to The Times almost 15 years ago, fresh from Howard University, where she studied broadcast journalism.

During her first role as a news clerk on Metro, she womanned the breaking news hotline and, as she puts it, “helped reporters get things done.” Two years later she was promoted to news assistant, managing the weekly Long Island and New Jersey event calendars for Metro but also supporting various sections (including Styles). She also got a master’s degree in digital media from the Columbia Journalism School in 2011.

“Helped reporters get things done.”

She officially joined Weddings in 2016: producing weekly articles, reporting wedding announcements, overseeing the section’s social media account and covering New York Bridal Fashion Week. In 2019, she became a staff editor, working closely with LeAnn to assign and edit relationship and wedding features, as well as oversee user-generated stories.

Last fall, she produced a memorable look at the joy of homecoming celebrations at H.B.C.U.s.

“I’ve always been curious and fascinated by people, relationships and the concept of falling in love,” Charanna says. “From the moment I stepped into the building, almost 15 years ago, I knew that I wanted to work on the Weddings desk. And, it’s an absolute honor to have the opportunity to serve as the senior staff editor of the section that has allowed me to live out my greatest passion.”

Charanna has continued to take on more responsibility in the newsroom, playing a significant role in expanding the coverage of the Weddings desk to explore the full range of relationship experiences, including intimacy, commitment, friendship, dating, marriage and the moments when they come to an end: divorce, breakups and loss. She has also played a key role in increasing the diversity of our coverage and expanding our audience through the Love Letter newsletter, which she writes weekly.

Over the last 15 months, Charanna and LeAnn have covered a rapidly changing wedding landscape. As the Weddings desk began to receive countless emails of postponed nuptials, Charanna helped to maintain a robust editorial calendar with articles that featured couples who planned creative proposals at home and those who got married on their porches, stoops, in their backyards and via Zoom. She also created the Home Together series, where notable couples share how they survived quarantine. And, she even gave us a glimpse of how some parents coped while working from home during the early days of the pandemic.

“Love is the connective tissue that transcends our differences and magnifies our humanity,” Charanna says. “The Weddings desk has such a rich history of telling those beautiful stories that remind us that we are all connected. I’m committed to bringing you all kinds of love stories and look forward to continuing the legacy of journalistic excellence that this section is known for, while evolving to address the ever-changing landscape of relationships.”

In case you are wondering, Charanna is pronounced “Sha-Anna,” and she is a quiet force, like the ‘R’ in her name.