Rolling Stone's top editor is resigning

Noah Shachtman, Rolling Stone's top editor, will step down at the end of this month after more than two years at the helm of the pop culture bible.

In a brief letter to employees seen by The New York Times, Mr. Shachtman said his last day as president of the magazine would be March 1, but he did not elaborate on the reasons for his departure.

His resignation was prompted by editorial disagreements with Rolling Stone CEO Gus Wenner, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters.

“It is the right decision that Gus Wenner and I made after many discussions about the direction of the brand,” Mr. Shachtman said in the letter.

Mr. Wenner told employees in a separate note that Mr. Shachtman would be replaced in the interim by Sean Woods, the magazine's deputy editor, and Lisa Tozzi, its digital director. The magazine will begin a search for a new top editor in the coming weeks, he said. Mr. Shachtman will continue as a contributing writer for the magazine.

“I would like to thank him for all the work, passion and dedication he has put into our publication over the years,” Mr. Wenner wrote.

The Daily Beast's former top editor, Mr. Shachtman, imported the news website's hard-hitting, investigative sensibility to Rolling Stone. During his tenure, the magazine published investigations into prominent musicians and actors, including Jonathan Majors and Marilyn Manson. The publication also won a National Magazine Award for Digital Design and was nominated for its first Emmy Award interactive media under his supervision.

In recent years, Rolling Stone has focused on expanding beyond its roots as a traditional magazine, focusing on events, licensing, online commerce, film, TV and podcast activities.

Rolling Stone was thrown into crisis last year when Jann Wenner, one of the magazine's founders, made comments in an interview with The Times that were widely considered racist and sexist. Jann Wenner, Gus Wenner's father, left the publication in 2019, but he was still influential in the music world as a board member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, which he also helped found. After his comments were published, he was expelled from the foundation and condemned by the Black Rock Coalition, a brand that Mr. Shachtman Rolling Stone had tried to cover.