Richard Stengel to Leave Time Magazine for Obama Administration

Richard Stengel, the managing editor of Time magazine, is leaving to become under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs at the State Department, according to people familiar with the appointment.

Mr. Stengel replaces Tara Sonenshine who held the post with Secretaries of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Kerry before leaving in July. Before that, the position was occupied by Judith McHale, a former chief executive of Discovery Communications, who worked under Ms. Clinton and left the position in 2011.

Mr. Stengel has said in the past that his deputy editor, Nancy Gibbs, would succeed him. Daniel Kile, a spokesman for Time, declined to comment about either job moves.

Mr. Stengel became Time’s 16th managing editor in 2006, after serving as a writer who covered the 1988 and 1996 presidential campaigns. He got a glimpse of the responsibilities that are to come when he traveled with Secretary Clinton to the Middle East in 2012.