WSJ hires new staffers on rankings, newsletters and community teams

Robin Kwong, new formats editor at The Wall Street Journal, sent out the following on Monday:

Hi everyone,

I am excited to announce some new arrivals for our Rankings, Newsletters and Community teams.

Harry Carr has joined us as Rankings Editor. Harry oversees our existing rankings and lists, and will be developing new ways to use structured data to inform our readers and provide tools to help them make better decisions. His previous role was Director of Research and Innovation at Demos, a cross-party think tank. There, he built rankings systems including the Good Credit Index, Place Satisfaction Index and Good Growth Index. Before Demos, he established and ran a data journalism unit at Sky News. We will be seeking to further expand the rankings team under Harry, so stay tuned.

Leigh Kamping-Carder is our new Head of Newsletters. She is taking on our newsletters portfolio at a critical time as we embark on a period of investment and growth in this area. Many of you already know Leigh from the fantastic work she has done helping to establish and grow the Future of Everything franchise, which included running one of our most popular newsletters. Leigh joined the Journal in 2015 as Digital Editor for Mansion, and previously worked at The Real Deal and BrickUnderground.com.

Zlati Meyer is already off to a fantastic start as our new writer for Notes on the News. In addition to being one of our largest newsletters, this is also our key offering for people who aren’t yet subscribers to the Journal. It has been a major success, and we are already working on further refinements to the newsletter as we look to drive even more growth. Zlati comes to us from Fast Company, where she wrote features about workplace issues and culture, and edited the daily Compass newsletter. Zlati has extensive experience reporting on a wide range of topics in her previous roles at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Detroit Free Press and USA Today.

Liz Webber is joining us in mid-March as newsletter producer. She will be helping with special editions, new newsletter launches and newsroom training. Liz has been a journalist for more than a decade and comes to us from Quartz where, as deputy email editor, she launched pop-up newsletters on the Tokyo Olympics and COP26. She also has experience as an editor at Entrepreneur and Supermarket News and holds a Master’s degree in Journalism Innovation from Syracuse University.

Gretchen Tarrant has joined us as an Audience Interaction Producer. Gretchen will help drive deeper engagement with members and expand our reach to new audiences by creating content from audience submissions, and other projects. Gretchen is a recent graduate of Columbia Journalism School and comes to us from Buzzfeed, where she worked as an Audience Development Strategist. Prior to moving into journalism, Gretchen worked in digital strategy at Walmart, where she launched and edited the Favorite Reads Blog and spearheaded community engagement in its Esports Arena.

Gretchen reports to Carrie Reynolds, who as head of our New Audiences & Community team continues to lead our efforts to elevate the discourse around our articles and drive new ways to engage with our readers.

Robin