Ailworth among WSJ layoffs

Erin Ailworth, known for her disaster coverage at The Wall Street Journal, was among the layoffs Thursday as the company disbanded its U.S. News coverage team and its regional bureaus.

She would have hit her 10-year anniversary at the Journal in August.

Erin most recently worked as the Journal’s New York City reporter and was part of its East Coast bureau. In that job, she helped cover Trump’s first arraignment, flew to Israel to write about people traveling into a war zone, and most recently covered the protest encampment at Columbia.

Prior to that role, she spent a year as the editor of newsroom talent, recruiting for the Journal’s U.S. News, Washington, World News and Speed & Trending teams. Before joining the talent team, Erin did a stint on the Journal’s publishing desk, where she edited copy sent from bureaus around the world and prepared those stories for publication online.

Ailworth was previously a member of the U.S. News team’s Mid-U.S. bureau, where she wrote stories that focused on the nation’s disasters and traumas, including hurricanes, wildfires and riots. She was part of the team named Pulitzer finalists for the Journal’s coverage of PG&E and the wildfires in California. Erin also helped chronicle the spread of Covid-19 via cruise ships at the start of the pandemic. She led the Journal’s coverage of George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis, as well as the protests and police trials that followed. It was those kinds of assignments that inspired colleagues to dub her “Calamity Erin.”

Ailworth joined the Journal in 2014 as an energy reporter in the Houston bureau, where she wrote about the U.S. oil-and-gas industry, and later renewable energy and utilities.

Prior to the Journal, she worked at the Boston Globe, the Orlando Sentinel and the Los Angeles Times.

She is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School and a lifetime member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, where she served four years on the national board.