WSJ hires new reporters for corporate team

Jamie Heller, business editor of The Wall Street Journal, sent out the following on Friday:

Hi there!

We’re thrilled to announce several new hires for our corporate coverage as well as a very special promotion and other openings in the U.S. and Asia. Please join us in welcoming and congratulating these terrific journalists. And please be in touch if you think you might like to join our squad covering global business or want to recommend someone.

Very best,

Jamie, Drew, Gordon

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In the U.S.

Brad Reagan is taking on an expanded role as Technology Projects Editor. This title is a recognition and affirmation of Brad’s work driving some of our most memorable and impactful journalism in recent years–notably including the award-winning Facebook Files series–often pulling together reporters from across teams and bureaus. Brad also will continue as deputy of our SF tech bureau and will continue to spearhead our social media and Google coverage.

Brad previously served in editing roles in the Journal’s finance and sports departments and before that wrote books on subjects including professional poker players and country songwriter Billy Joe Shaver. A native Texan, he now lives in Berkeley with his wife and 7-year-old son.

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Esther Fung is taking on coverage of UPS, FedEx, freight railroads and supply chains. A Knight-Bagehot fellow this past year, Esther previously covered commercial real estate for the Journal for more than a decade and landed memorable scoops including on Amazon’s moves into grocery stores and department stores. Esther joined the Journal in Shanghai, where she covered the property market in China and also helped cover disasters such as the Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 disappearance.

Esther won the NAREE Silver Award for Best Commercial Real Estate Story for an article about how big bets on theme-park like attractions backfired for malls during the pandemic. She won a SABEW Best in Business Award in 2018 for her article about the demise of U.S. malls in the Journal’s “Retail in Crisis” series. A Singapore native who attended university there, Esther is fluent in Mandarin and a foodie. When not on a hike or mushroom walk, she is learning to dance the tango or bouldering. She will join the Corporate Bureau in New York.

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Berber Jin is joining the Journal to cover venture capital and startups. Berber comes to us from the Information, where he quickly established himself as a leading voice on this subject. His stories there broke news on the investor frenzy for cash-burning instant-delivery startups, dug into how founders took advantage of soaring valuations, and profiled big VC firms, including a story on Benchmark’s struggle to deal with industry changes and one on how Masayoshi Son’s goals for SoftBank’s investments were frustrated. Prior to the Information, Berber was at Insider.

Originally from Scarsdale, N.Y., Berber graduated from Stanford University with degrees in history and economics. In his free time, he enjoys playing tennis and listening to new indie pop albums. He is an avid pianist, is fluent in Mandarin and speaks Russian and Spanish. He will join the Technology Bureau in San Francisco.

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Sarah Krouse is rejoining the Journal to cover Netflix and the battle for supremacy in streaming video. Sarah also comes to us from the Information, where she has had a stellar run covering Google and its navigation of the shifting online ad business, and tech broadly. Earlier, Sarah spent six years at the Journal covering investing and telecommunications. Her work included scoops such as the news that Tim Armstrong was leaving Verizon/AOL, and memorable enterprise including on the financial incentives behind robocall scams. She was a leader on our series on the rise of passive investing.

Sarah was named a News Media Alliance 2018 Rising Star and was part of a team that received the New York Press Club’s 2018 Consumer Reporting Award for an investigation of Morningstar fund ratings. She started her career at the Washington Business Journal. She is a Broadway buff, novice guitar player and dog rescue volunteer who lives in Connecticut with her husband and hound. She will join the Media & Marketing group in New York.

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Miles Kruppa is joining the Journal to cover Google and its Alphabet kin. Miles was previously at the Financial Times in San Francisco, where he delivered scoops and agenda-setting features covering venture capital and startups. His stories explored the frenzy for crypto investments and the later collapse in the market for NFTs, broke news on the Trump-TikTok saga, and took readers inside the rise of Tiger Global Management. Before that, Miles reported on hedge funds for Absolute Return.

Miles earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Rice University, where he edited the student newspaper, the Rice Thresher. A native of Austin, Texas, Miles is also an avid tennis player and reader of European fiction. He will join the Technology Bureau in San Francisco.

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Benoit Morenne is joining the Journal to cover fracking and the natural-gas export industry. Benoit comes to us from the Deseret News in Utah, where he has been writing stories on climate change in the West and other topics for that publication’s magazine. He was previously an intern in the Journal’s Paris bureau, and has been a frequent freelance contributor to The Future of Everything sections. He formerly wrote for the New York Times in Paris, and has also written for the Economist and Christian Science Monitor, among other publications.

A native of France, Benoit is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He explored the legacy of a Louisiana race riot with a grant from the Pulitzer Center as a J-school student. He will join the U.S. energy team in Houston.

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In Asia

Selina Cheng has joined the Journal to cover China’s automobile market from Hong Kong. Selina was previously a reporter for Hong Kong Free Press, the investigative team of local news outlet HK01 and Quartz in New York. She has won journalism awards in Asia and the U.S., including for scoops revealing Hong Kong government’s lobbying efforts in the U.S. Capitol and Wikipedia’s sanctions against a group of Chinese power users. She got her bachelor’s degree at Sorbonne University in Paris and her masters at Columbia Journalism School. She likes camping trips though they don’t always turn out as hoped.

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Raffaele Huang is now covering China’s technology companies, based in Singapore. Previously, he was a researcher at the Beijing bureau focusing on automotive and tech news. He is from China’s southern Guangdong province and went to school in Beijing, Hong Kong and Italy. He has a master’s degree in financial journalism from Hong Kong Baptist University. Raf loves classical music and photography, and is looking forward to exploring a new city.

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Shen Lu joins the China bureau to cover the country’s technology sector. She has reported on China since 2015 from in and outside its borders. Prior to joining the Journal, she was a senior reporter at Protocol covering Chinese technology. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Foreign Policy, Politico Magazine, and ChinaFile, among others. She has received awards from the Society of Publishers in Asia, the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing and the Society of Professional Journalists. Shen Lu is an avid cook.

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Meanwhile, we have openings. In Media & Marketing, we are looking for a TV news and sports media reporter. Please contact Amol Sharma. In San Francisco, we are looking for a reporter to cover Twitter and social media. Please contact Jason Dean and Brad Reagan. In Asia, we are looking for a reporter to cover global business in China as well a reporter to cover companies in Japan. Please contact Yoko Kubota for China and Peter Landers for Japan.

And that’s just for now. More ahead.