Jennifer Cunningham, editor in chief of news at Insider, sent out the following:
Hi News Team!
I’m thrilled to announce our new leadership team overseeing the News Division.
John Cook, formerly the Investigations Editor, will be joining the News Team as an Executive Editor starting today. Rebecca Harrington and Kieran Corcoran have also been promoted to Executive Editor, effective today. John, Rebecca, and Kieran will report to me.
In his new role, John will be working directly with the Politics, Enterprise, and Defense teams. Rebecca will oversee the Science, Speed, Weekend, LA, Digital Culture, Voices of Color, and Sports teams. And Kieran will continue to lead the entire UK News Division’s coverage and serve as London’s Deputy Bureau Chief.
Esther Kaplan will now head the Investigations Team, which will now be housed in the News Division.
I’m incredibly excited to have Rebecca, John, and Kieran on board and I would encourage all of you to reach out and say hi over the next few weeks.
In her 7 years at Insider, Rebecca has worked across the News, Science, Politics, Defense, Sports, Weekend, and Video teams; writing, editing, coaching, and managing. She’s led trainings and produced guides to help strengthen newsroom standards to get better every day. Some of the stories she’s proudest of writing include: a deep-dive on the politics of climate change, Insider’s Capitol riot arrests database, and an explainer on the 25th Amendment. Some of the stories she’s proudest of editing include: a Jacob Blake profile, a border wall feature, and Insider’s award-winning “Conflicted Congress” series.
Rebecca’s reportage has also appeared in Scientific American, Popular Science, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. She received her Master’s degree from the Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program at New York University.
Kieran has worked in digital news for the past decade. Before joining Insider, he had reporting stints at the Daily Mail and The Sun, including a year at the Mail’s Manhattan bureau. He also worked for the short-lived News Corp publication Heat Street.
At Insider he developed the UK News Team from a one person operation to more than a dozen, and helped establish our 24-hour rolling coverage system. He has led original, impactful coverage including: Bill Bostock’s exposé of the Saudi app restricting women’s travel, which caused international outrage and was abolished; Tom Porter’s investigations of the ‘Miracle Mineral Solution’ bleach-drinking cult; Sinéad Baker’s coverage of the Boeing 737 MAX crashes, which was cited in Congress; and the UK team’s coverage of the Ukraine war, including Mia Jankowicz’s profile of Oleksandra Kuvshynova, a local journalist killed helping Fox News cover the conflict.
John was previously the Investigations Editor at Insider, where he worked with reporters at both Insider and Business Insider to produce deeply reported pieces on a variety of subjects, including high-profile projects that revealed sexual misconduct allegations against Elon Musk, the extensive culture of harassment at Bloomberg, and the depth of Jeffrey Epstein’s connections to U.S. financiers and political figures.
He has been a reporter and editor for more than 20 years, serving as Executive Editor of Gawker Media, Editor-in-Chief of The Intercept, and founder of Gizmodo Media Group’s investigative team, the Special Projects Desk.
As the first editor-in-chief of the Intercept, he oversaw investigations revealing the Department of Homeland Security’s secret rules for who gets on the terrorist watchlist and the NSA’s top secret program to record every single phone call made in the Bahamas.
As a reporter for Gawker, he was the first to report that Hillary Clinton had used a private email address to conduct government business, and he broke the story of former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s infamous crack tape.
John is very excited to get to know all of you and he will be joining our News Team meeting tomorrow to discuss his new role and answer your questions.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Jenn
