Media News

The life and career of WSJ’s Gershkovich

Evan Gershkovich

Eliot Brown of The Wall Street Journal writes about the life of Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, sentenced last week to 16 years in a Russian prison.

Brown writes, “A soccer star in high school at Princeton’s public schools, Evan studied philosophy at Bowdoin College in Maine and then moved to New York after a year in Thailand.

“Evan lived in a rowdy apartment with college friends who he took on bike rides to the Russian enclave of Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, where he showed off his Russian with waiters, ordering vodka by the boardwalk. After a time working as a line chef, he pushed his way into journalism and landed a job as a news assistant at the New York Times.

“Then in 2017, Evan took a career risk: He left his job at the New York Times and moved to Moscow to work at the Moscow Times, a scrappy English-language outlet that has a history of nurturing talented Russia correspondents.

“He was comfortable in New York, but he felt the pull of Russia—a place he’d visited just once but that fascinated him. He believed his Russian-language skills and knowledge of the culture put him in a unique position to explain Russia to the outside world, his friend and housemate Jeremy Berke said.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

Recent Posts

CoinDesk journalists concerned about owner interference

Leo Schwartz of Fortune examines cryptocurrency news operation CoinDesk under its new owners, which forced editors…

3 hours ago

Western, formerly with WSJ, joins NY Times in Soeul

New York Times international editor Phil Pan sent out the following on Wednesday: We’re excited…

3 hours ago

NY Times names Karaian deputy biz editor

New York Times business editor Ellen Pollock sent out the following on Wednesday: I’m thrilled to announce…

3 hours ago

FT seeks a trade and climate correspondent

The Financial Times is looking for a correspondent to cover international trade, based in Washington,…

6 hours ago

Why hedge fund managers are hesitant to talk with reporters

Nell Mackenzie, a hedge fund reporter at Reuters, spoke on the "Hedge Fund Huddle" podcast…

10 hours ago

Fortune jumps to No. 8 biz news website in November

Fortune magazine jumped two spots to become the No. 8 business news website in November…

10 hours ago