Chao Down…


Well, actually she’s up, sort of. I just like the pun. Veronica Chao, the icy editress of the Improper Bostonian, has been hired to helm the Globe’s City Weekly section. Beyond running the bi-monthly glossy rag, which, though vapid, looked downright Tolstoyan next to its main competitor, Stuff@Night, Chao is best known for being the local journo who the Weekly Dig’s nasty and craven Media Farm column fell badly in love with for several months. (I’d link to some of the columns, but they were hoovered into the void when the Dig relaunched its website.)

City Weekly, for those who don’t dig that deep into their Sunday Globe, is sort of a junior varsity City/Region, full of posi stories that in most cases only the community papers would go near. The hateful, buzz-word-laden memo from regional metro editor David Dahl is after the jump:

Great news for fans of City Weekly: we have a new editor. She is Veronica Chao, currently the editor of Improper Bostonian, which has thrived under her leadership. Veronica promises to “reflect the uniqueness of Boston,” as she put it recently, in what has become one of the Globe’s most distinctive sections. She wants to connect with Boston’s neighborhoods, reflect the vibrant diversity of the city and make the section a must read for people who want to know the buzz in Boston, Somerville, Cambridge and Brookline. A resident of Boston, she’s a big fan of public transportation — she does not own a car, folks — and is further connected to the city via her work and through mentoring and volunteer groups. She grew up in Alexandria, Va., and lived and worked in Washington before coming to Boston. She will start Oct. 12.