Nicholas Jackson (editor)

Nicholas Jackson (born 1987) is an American author, writer, and magazine editor known for his work at The Atlantic,[1] Outside,[2] and Pacific Standard,[3] where he served as the magazine's third editor-in-chief from 2015[4] until its closure in 2019.[5] He has since worked as an independent consultant and media strategist[6] for a variety of publishers and organizations. At Pacific Standard, he argued for radical transparency around editorial decisions in newsrooms[7] and promoted the importance of strong relationships with freelance writers, leading the magazine to be named one of the best places to pitch story ideas.[8] As editor-in-chief, he was also publicly celebrated for developing remote working policies for staff journalism jobs,[9] paying writers fairly and quickly,[10] and "cultivating stories that inform and change people's lives."[11]

When the magazine closed, it was written that Jackson "led a superb editorial team over his six years there"[12] and that Pacific Standard "stood out from the pack of click-hungry websites."[13] Lloyd Grove, of The Daily Beast, reported that the shutdown "hit the journalism community especially hard,"[14] with other journalists noting that "I've looked to Pacific Standard so many times for examples of great, clear-eyed reporting and elegant (but never over-the-top) writing"[15] and that "Pacific Standard was the best dedicated source for social science coverage anywhere, and routinely put out stories that made me burn with jealousy that I didn't think of them first or do them as well. The world will be worse without it."[16]

In 2017, Jackson won the National Magazine Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors in the Feature Photography category[17][18][19] for "Adrift," a series on Eritrean refugees photographed from onboard a Doctors Without Borders ship in the Mediterranean.[20] In the award citation, the ASME judges wrote that, "sensitively paced and complemented by elegant typography, Francesco Zizola's photographs of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean combine a strong visual perspective with a powerful narrative voice."[21]

Jackson was a finalist two years later, in 2019, for the National Magazine Award in Essays and Criticism[22] for Terese Marie Mailhot's story about surviving racism as a Native writer, "Silence Breaking Woman."

He was named to Folio: magazine's 30 under 30 list in both 2012[23] and 2017,[24] with Folio: editors citing the National Magazine Award win and writing that, "with limited resources, Jackson has made Pacific Standard a must-read for those interested in working toward forward-looking solutions to social and environmental problems."[25]