ABOUT MEL

For some two decades, Mel Laytner was a reporter and editor of hard news, much of it as a foreign correspondent for NBC News and United Press International covering the Middle East .

Mel's started his full-time career with UPI during its Scripps-Howard days, reporting on all manner of urban mayhem in New York City, his hometown.  He was promoted to a bureau manager before moving to the General News and Cables (Foreign) Desks where he rose to a supervising editor with final responsibility for selecting and editing the top stories of the day for UPI’s 400 afternoon newspaper clients. 

Mel’s first foreign posting was London. A year later, UPI assigned him to the Tel Aviv bureau. Soon after, he was named Jerusalem Correspondent, where he still covered mayhem but on an international level. NBC News recruited Mel as its Middle East Radio Correspondent.

After seven grinding years overseas, he was awarded a prestigious Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economic and Business Journalism, which included a year’s residency at the Columbia Graduate School of Business. 

Mel received his BA in Political Science at the City College of New York. He earned Master's degrees from both the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, with a concentration in broadcast news, and from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, with a specialization in foreign policy analysis. 

He and his wife, an artist, live in New York City and are the proud parents of three  daughters.