Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s downstate press operation has gained a new deputy: Matt Wing, who is starting his new job as deputy communications director for NYC today.

Wing’s hiring bumps Cuomo’s main spokesman, Josh Vlasto, up to the post of executive deputy communications director.

The addition also comes at a time when the Cuomo press operation has received more than its usual share of scrutiny for what is widely viewed as the administration’s heavy-handed method of managing the media.

Technically speaking, the governor – who is very cost conscious and mindful of not sending the wrong message as he calls on others to do more with less – is not expanding his press shop.

Two spokesmen have accepted positions in agency offices. David Doyle is now flacking for the State Police, while Lee Park is at Racing and Wagering.

Wing has done time in Albany. He got his start as a Roth Fellow for the Senate Republican press shop in 2006 and 2007. He recently left his post as communications director for NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio.

He briefly helped out in the final days of AG Eric Schneiderman’s successful campaign last fall and also worked on then-Sen. Barack Obama’s NY presidential bid in 2008, working for Change to Win, a consortium of pro-Obama labor groups.

Wing also did a stint in Cuomo’s AG office, working under then-Communications Director Jeff Lerner, who went on to be the political field director at Change to Win and is now political director at the DNC.

Salary information for Wing was not immediately available. Welcome aboard, Matt, and good luck!

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