New WSJ editor Tucker’s No. 1 job: Freeing reporter Gershkovich

Shawn McCreesh of New York Magazine profiles new Wall Street Journal editor Emma Tucker, whose main focus lately has been on securing the freedom of reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested in Russia last month.

McCreesh writes, “Soon, Tucker, who had never worked in America before and hardly knew her way around the city, let alone her own newsroom — her assistant hasn’t even moved from London yet — became the public face of Gershkovich’s imprisonment.

“She appeared all over television, on everything from Face the Nation to Anderson Cooper 360° to Fox & Friends, to protest the Russian charges of espionage as ‘utter rubbish.’ The Journal immediately profiled its reporter on the front page of the weekend paper, posted a selection of his coverage of Russia outside the paper’s paywall, and then published a piece about the infamous Lefortovo prison, where Gershkovich is being kept. Tucker and Harris visited the reporter’s family in Philadelphia on April 2 to deliver notes from their son’s friends and colleagues. Journal reporters, normally advised to be circumspect on social media, were instructed to tweet as much as possible about Gershkovich, and readers were encouraged to add #IStandWithEvan to their social-media posts.

“Now, Tucker’s journalistic rivals have rallied around her. ‘She has handled a difficult situation with urgency and confidence,’ says Joe Kahn, executive editor of the New York Times.“

Read more here.