David Gambacorta, Malcolm Burnley to Join Philadelphia Magazine Staff

David Gambacorta, left, and Malcolm Burnley.

David Gambacorta, an award-winning Philadelphia Daily News reporter, and Malcolm Burnley, currently a Philadelphia magazine writer at large, are joining the magazine full time, Philly Mag editor Patrick Kerkstra announced today.

Gambacorta, 32, has covered crime, police corruption, and politics for the past decade at the Daily News. His work has been recognized with awards for investigative reporting, distinguished writing, and enterprise reporting from the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Center for Public Interest Journalism, the Pennsylvania News Media Association, and the Pen and Pencil Club. In 2015, he was a fellow at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

In addition to a highly praised feature on former Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey’s efforts to rid the force of bad cops for the November 2015 issue of Philadelphia, Gambacorta has also written for the Marshall Project. He begins his senior reporter role at Philadelphia on March 7th.

Burnley, a 26-year-old native of Staten Island and 2012 graduate of Brown University, was Philly Mag’s research editor between May 2013 and July 2014 and has been a writer at large since August 2015. He’s written extensively for the magazine and Phillymag.com, including pieces on Philly’s unending trash problem, Voice contestant Anthony Riley’s last days, and navigating his own biracial identity. He has also done pieces for Next City, Washingtonian, and the Atlantic, and appeared on NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered, On the Media, and the CBS Evening News.

In his new associate editor role, Burnley will continue to write features and co-edit the magazine’s Metropolis section. He begins on July 1st.

Sandy Smith. Photograph by Claudia Gavin

Kerkstra also announced that home and real estate editor James Jennings, who joined the staff in December 2014, is leaving the Philadelphia area. Replacing Jennings at the helm of Phillymag.com’s Property channel is associate editor Sandy Smith, who came on staff in November 2015 after two years as a frequent contributor. Smith, who has lived in the city for more than 30 years, has covered development and urban affairs issues for Next City, among other publications, and is Philly Mag’s resident SEPTA expert.