Media Movers: KFF Health News’ Alex Wayne

If our health is a gift, Alex Wayne’s new job might have come with a giant bow.

He just took on an exciting role with KFF Health News, which he describes as a “leading nonprofit newsroom covering one of the most chronically undercovered, yet vital subjects for all humans: their health.” [Editor’s note: Whether health is undercovered, let alone “chronically,” is open to some debate. But Wayne’s a star regardless. Meanwhile, maybe I should ask my doctor.]

Once known as Kaiser Health News, the national newsroom is an endowed nonprofit organization producing in-depth journalism. (If only all newsrooms were endowed nonprofits!) It accepts no advertising and, according to its website, all original content is available to other news organizations and the public free of charge. I’m impressed. This is a gift to us all.

I met Alex years ago when we were wrinkle-free cub reporters at Poynter. Back then, he was earning his stripes at good ol’ dailies in Florida and North Carolina. His skills then took him to Bloomberg News, where he spent more than a decade covering health care and politics. I talked with Alex about his new role, academia and shredding the gnar:

Dawn: Congrats on your new job. Tell me what you’ll be doing.

Alex: I’m the managing editor for health policy and politics. I’ll be helping to manage the newsroom and sharpen our coverage of federal health policy and the politics surrounding it.

Dawn: What made you decide to leave Bloomberg?

Alex: Incredible organization. I learned to be an editor there, under just about the most trying circumstances a newbie editor could encounter: the Trump White House. I like to joke that it was never boring, but it was more than that: It was thrilling a lot of the time. But I’d accomplished most of what I set out to do there, and health has always been a favorite beat. I’ve long admired the mission of KFF and KFF Health News and the people who work there; the journalism they produce is often astounding. It was the proverbial offer that was too good to refuse.

Dawn: Looking back at your time there, what are some of the things you learned?

Alex: I learned how to write fast, how to write smart, and how to write fast and smart. How to inspire reporters and win their confidence. How to collaborate with colleagues, sometimes on the other side of the world.

Dawn: You wrote about health care before editing political coverage; how did that background help?

Alex: At its root, politics in the U.S. is all about who gets the power to make policy. The best political reporters and editors have some grounding in how policy actually gets made — whether it’s health care, education, national security, energy, whatever.

Dawn: You spent time as a daily newspaper reporter in North Carolina. Why didn’t you stick with dailies?

Alex: The paper I worked for in North Carolina, the News & Record, employed — I’m ballparking here — probably 100 or more journalists at its peak while I was there. I started in one of three or four sizable bureaus they ran in neighboring cities and counties. Today, the bureaus are long gone and the paper is a shell of itself, employing about a half-dozen journalists. The office building I worked in has become a public nuisance. Daily newspapers, outside the national papers and a few scrappy survivors here and there, are deathly ill and nobody’s yet figured out how to replace them.

Dawn: You spent a semester as an adjunct professor. What did you think of academia?

Alex: I liked the students, but it was a lot of extra work for not a lot of extra money.

Dawn: Looking back, what got you into journalism?

Alex: I always enjoyed writing. Once upon a time, I was a managing editor of my high school newspaper, Cat Tracks. I started out in college as a chemistry major but was super-bored by organic chem and too squeamish for medicine. I figured that if I pursued chemistry professionally, I’d spend a lot of time in an office doing math. (I have no idea if that was an accurate assessment.) Journalism seemed a lot more fun.

Dawn: Who mentored you along the way?

Alex: So many people, many of them just by setting an example for me. If I list too many I’ll inevitably forget someone important so let me just name-check a few: Joan Beyette, my high school journalism teacher, sparked love for the craft. Gary Corsair, my very first editor at The Villages Daily Sun taught me how to be a reporter. (Yes, that “The Villages” in Florida.) Lex Alexander, my first editor at the News & Record, taught me — the hard way — how to hit deadlines.

I kind of owe my Washington career (as well as my marriage and family!) to John Cochran, one of my editors at the News & Record. He left for Congressional Quarterly, then helped me land my first D.C. job there, too, where I met my wife Kimberly, my most valuable mentor. Mike Shepard at Bloomberg taught me a lot about how to be a manager and a decent human being at the same time.

Dawn: What would you say to someone who wants to get into the field today?

Alex: I don’t think my career path is very viable anymore; there aren’t enough jobs at local and regional newspapers. The easiest path into top-tier news organizations these days seems to be through graduate journalism programs at elite colleges. That said, I’ve seen Bloomberg hire talented bloggers and turn them into star reporters. So if you’ve got a passion for something, maybe just try writing about it, to start.

Dawn: What would you say to your younger self?

Alex: If I hadn’t done everything I did exactly the way I did it, I wouldn’t be where I am today. But dude, maybe apply for an internship or two?

Dawn: What is the favorite story that you ever told?

Alex: At the News & Record, I wrote a series about children who died while under the supervision of the state’s child protective services agency. It won no awards. I think a team of reporters at the Charlotte Observer beat me to basically the same story a week before I was ready to publish. It was crushing. And yet I am still immensely proud of that work and will never forget some of the people I spoke to in the course of its reporting.

Dawn: What would you be doing if you weren’t a journalist?

Alex: Archaeology, maybe. My mom is a professional archaeologist and I spent my summers in college (when perhaps I should have been doing internships) working for her, excavating sites across the southeast U.S. It’s hard and super-interesting work that is not real remunerative, a lot like journalism.

Dawn: Finally, what do you do for fun?

Alex: I’m gradually getting all of my kids — 3, 6, 7 and 9 — up on skis. I dream of a day when we can all shred the gnar together.

Dawn Wotapka is a former Wall Street Journal reporter who loves to read and write. She lives in Atlanta with her husband and two children. She is a slow runner and an avid Peloton user. To submit tips for her Media Movers column, connect with Dawn on LinkedIn.