Veteran photo editors from Time, U.S. News & World Report and Cox Newspapers are going to work for the Obama administration.

White House photographer Pete Souza announced the hires in an e-mail to PDN Tuesday. At a time when media companies are laying off and cutting back, Souza quickly recruited a team of six experienced photo staffers from the news media to document the Obama White House.

Alice Gabriner, chief picture editor and acting director of photography for Time, will become White House photo editor and deputy director for the photo office. Time has now churned through three directors of photography in less than three years under managing editor Richard Stengel. A Time spokesperson says the magazine has not named a replacement for Gabriner.

Rick McKay, photo editor and photographer for Cox Newspapers’s Washington bureau, will become a deputy photo editor at the White House. Cox, which publishes the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and 16 other daily newspapers, plans to shut down its Washington bureau next month.

Jennifer Poggi, who had been photography deputy director at U.S. News & World Report, will also become a deputy photo editor in the White House. Poggi is participating in a John S. Knight Fellowship for Professional Journalists and is not currently working at U.S. News.

Last month, Souza announced the hiring of photographers Chuck Kennedy of McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Lawrence Jackson of the Associated Press and freelancer Samantha Appleton to assist in White House coverage.

Gabriner and McKay start April 13, pending security approval, Souza says. Poggi will start after her Knight Fellowship on June 22.

Gabriner says her last day at Time is Friday. She has been with the magazine almost ten years. In an e-mail to PDN, Gabriner said she will miss the people she’s worked with, but “I’m excited by the opportunity to work with Pete Souza and his team in visually documenting this historic presidency.”

Gabriner took over the Time photo department after DOP MaryAnne Golon left abruptly in June 2008. Golon had replaced DOP Michele Stephenson, who retired in January 2007.

U.S. News has also lost three photo directors since 2005. DOP Olivier Picard accepted a buyout in 2005 and his replacement Scot Jahn left in 2008, when the position of director of photography was eliminated.

McKay has been with the Cox Washington bureau since June 1984, when he joined it as the bureau’s first photographer, according to the Cox Newspapers Web site. Previously McKay worked at USA Today, the Battle Creek Enquirer and News and the Hillsdale (Mich.) Daily News.

"I'm just thrilled to be joining Pete and the very talented team he has assembled at the White House," McKay said in an e-mail.

Souza is a former photojournalist for the Chicago Tribune and was a White House photographer for President Reagan. He joined the Obama administration in January.

Related stories
February 25, 2009: Three More Photojournalists Join White House Staff
January 5, 2009: Pete Souza Named Obama’s Chief White House Photographer
June 3, 2008: MaryAnne Golon Out As Time DOP
December 26, 2006: TIME's Michele Stephenson Announces Retirement
December 1, 2005: U.S. News Quits White House Photo Pool, Lays Off More Staff