Jane Amsterdam

Jane Ellen Amsterdam (born June 15, 1951) is a former American magazine and newspaper editor. After successive magazine editorships during the 1970s, she joined The Washington Post as section editor. She later became founding editor of Manhattan, inc., and was widely credited with making it into a dynamic, National Magazine Award-winning magazine. She later joined the New York Post, becoming the first female editor of a major New York City newspaper.

Early life and education Amsterdam was born in Philadelphia, the third of four children. Her mother, Fay, was a housewife and her father, Morton, a dentist, university professor, and former dean of University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. In 1976, she became the founding managing editor of New Jersey Monthly, which she left in early 1978 to become editor of New Times magazine, which folded by the end of the year. At the Post, she collaborated with reporters Bob Woodward and Patrick Tyler on an article regarding allegations of improper stock practices by CIA deputy director Max Hugel, who resigned the day after the article appeared. Shortly afterward, Amsterdam was made deputy editor of a Washington Post investigative unit under Woodward. Under Amsterdam's editorship the magazine was also a National Magazine Award finalist for the same category in 1986 and 1987 and for the Single-Topic Issue category in 1988. Amsterdam was widely credited for the magazine's success.

A colleague at Manhattan, inc. recalled: "one of her great gifts is that she packages stories so that people love to read them." Journalist Ron Rosenbaum dedicated his 1987 book Manhattan Passions to her.

In January 1988, Amsterdam joined book publishing company Alfred A. Knopf as senior editor.

New York Post In May 1988, Amsterdam was hired by the New York Post as editor and was given full control over all of the newspaper's sections except the editorial division. She also oversaw the debut of the Posts new Sunday edition, a feature intended to compete against rival New York tabloids the Daily News and Newsday, and worked on the section's book review and travel supplements. Within a year after her hiring, Amsterdam was forced out by Post publisher Peter Kalikow, who reportedly complained that the more credible form of journalism was not helping sell more papers. In 1993, she became a senior producer on the ABC News program Day One before retiring from the media industry. That same year, she took up competitive carriage driving. with whom she adopted a son, Edward Roy, in 1990.