Enron reporter Smith leaving WSJ

Rebecca Smith, a two-time Gerald Loeb Award winner for The Wall Street Journal, is leaving the newspaper.

Smith, who was the newspapers national energy reporter, is best known for her coverage of Enron. She is the co-author, with Journal reporter John Emshwiller, of the book “24 Days: How Two Wall Street Journal Reporters Uncovered the Lies that Destroyed Faith in Corporate America.”

In an email to Talking Biz News, Smith wrote:

I will finally have time to do some of the long-distance pilgrimage walks — uninterrupted — that I have been doing piecemeal for years. (Like from Le Puy-En-Velay in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.) Do it before the knees give out!<

And I will hunt out opportunities to continue to do some long-form journalism. Was it ever more important than now?

Technically,  I am retiring, but I prefer to see it as a chance to try new things, including do-gooder work for charities.  So it’s more like I’m rewiring than retiring.

Smith has been at the Journal since 1999. She has degrees from the University of Washington and Mills College. Smith and Emshwiller won a Loeb in 2002 for their Enron coverage.

Smith also won the Loeb Award for deadline or beat writing in 2001 for her coverage of the electricity crisis in California