Reuters Breakingviews US editor Laughlin is leaving

Lauren Silva Laughlin, the U.S. editor for Reuters Breakingviews, sent out the following to sources and colleagues:

Dear colleagues (friends, family, framily, sources, spokespeople, and occasional counterparties),

As many of you now know, I am leaving Reuters next month. You may not know what I’m doing next. Here goes.

After nearly dying from an appendicitis in the jungle in Costa Rica in August, I woke up in a less-than-ideal emergency room determined to create a media company I’ve been conceptualizing for years. That company, Batch (logo below!), will seek to tear down barriers and stigma that exist in the fertility market, specifically surrounding sperm donorship. And in that spirit, there’s more than one story to tell.

Here’s mine. I found out seven years ago that I’m the product of a sperm donor. In the early days of this fertility “technology”, my parents ventured to a doctor outside of their hometown to help conceive. As the now-funny story goes, my sister discovered this news via DNA test, which led me to do mine. Our father that raised us is Portuguese. My sister’s biological father is 100% Ashkenazi Jew. Mine? 100% Italian, from Campania. They say God has a sense of humor.

This news led me down a journalistic path that uncovered some disturbing facts: for example, there’s fewer than 2,000 sperm donors at accredited facilities in the U.S. and between 30,000 and 400,000 babies made every year via donor. (That’s not a typo.) So there’s a black market for sperm. There are people with a thousand siblings. Check out this sperm bank, which is running a Halloween “special” – spooky!

Batch will begin as a place to hear stories, told by real people with me as the facilitator, to hopefully make everyone feel less lonely on their journey. It will build into a community from there, and eventually become a place where sperm donors and babymakers can meet in a safe and private way, receiving both scrutiny and attention to detail that should go into this huge life choice.

For now, I’m around Breakingviews to help through the election. It’s been a privilege to be a part of this amazing organization, and I’m grateful to Peter and Alessandra for trusting me to lead the U.S. team. With a global network of reporters and journalistic integrity guided by the Trust Principles, Reuters is untouched in how it covers historic events. And the columnists here are creative, fun, and hardworking. I’m lucky to have learned from you all.