Less than a month after ABC News slashed the staffing at its FiveThirtyEight data-driven journalism brand, and saw founder Nate Silver announce his departure, the news division has found a new leader that will oversee FiveThirtyEight and all of ABC’s data journalism.
On Friday ABC News president Kim Godwin told staff that G. Elliott Morris will soon join the organization as its editorial director of data analytics.
“Elliott will lead our data journalism efforts for ABC News and FiveThirtyEight, including launching a full suite of poll-aggregation and election-forecasting models for U.S. elections to be used across broadcast, streaming and digital,” Godwin wrote. “Elliott and the FiveThirtyEight team will work closely with the politics unit and the decision desk to conduct original studies of polling data to deliver our audience information that goes beyond predicting voting choices to explore the intricate landscape of human emotions, motivations, and the fascinating web of influences that shape these results.”
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Morris, most recently a data journalist and correspondent for The Economist, will report to ABC News VP of digital Lulu Chiang. He will be based in Washington D.C.
While ABC News kept the FiveThirtyEight brand after Nate Silver’s departure, Silver retained the rights to many of his data forecasting models. Morris will be tasked with developing new models that can replace the ones Silver is taking with him to whatever venture he pursues next.
Read Godwin’s note below.
Good morning ABC News,
I am pleased to share that G. Elliott Morris will be the editorial director of data analytics for ABC News, which includes FiveThirtyEight. Elliott starts on June 26 and will be based in Washington, D.C.
Elliott will lead our data journalism efforts for ABC News and FiveThirtyEight, including launching a full suite of poll-aggregation and election-forecasting models for U.S. elections to be used across broadcast, streaming and digital. Elliott and the FiveThirtyEight team will work closely with the politics unit and the decision desk to conduct original studies of polling data to deliver our audience information that goes beyond predicting voting choices to explore the intricate landscape of human emotions, motivations, and the fascinating web of influences that shape these results. Elliott will report to Lulu Chiang, vice president of ABC News Digital.
Elliott is an experienced data-driven journalist. He previously worked as a senior data journalist and U.S. correspondent for The Economist, covering American politics, public opinion polling, demographics and elections. He was the lead developer of The Economist’s election forecasting models for U.S. presidential and foreign elections. From 2020 to 2023, he wrote a data column for the paper’s weekly “Checks and Balance” newsletter on U.S. politics. Elliott is also the author of “Strength in Numbers: How Polls Work and Why We Need Them.”
With Elliott leading the talented data journalism team at ABC News and FiveThirtyEight, I look forward to the robust analysis of this current election cycle and the evolution of polling data at ABC News.
Please join me in congratulating Elliott and welcoming him to ABC News!
#oneabcnews
Kim
