Sia Michel, friend of 50 Cent and one-time Spin editor ousted during the magazine's sale last year, is joining the New York Times as pop music editor. The internal memo via Gawker:

Sia Michel Joins Culture

The departure of Tom Kuntz to the Week in Review created an opening in culture. I am pleased to report that Sia Michel will fill it, joining The Times as pop music editor. Sam Sifton introduces the newest addition to Culture.

Sia brings to The Times both the gifts of a writer and the strategic perspective of an editor. She has been laboring in the fields of freelance journalism for the past year, writing often and well for The Times, as both a critic and profilist.

But she was before that editor-in-chief of Spin, a magazine she had worked for since 1997, first as an assistant editor, later as executive editor. She came to Spin after a stint as an editor on SF Weekly, where she won awards for reporting and feature writing under her editor there, Jack Shafer, now the media critic for Slate. And she is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Jon Pareles has been following Sia's career since just about then. "She's confident without arrogance," he says, "and she calmly executes what she promises."

Just like James Bond! We're lucky to have her. Please join me in welcoming Sia Michel to The Times.

Sam Sifton