Forbes hires executive editor for news, boosts tech team

Forbes announced five editorial hires on Wednesday as part of its push to enhance breaking- and trending-news coverage in the U.S. and in Europe and expand its tech coverage.

The five appointments include:

• Kerry Lauerman, a former executive editor at Mic.com, who will serve as executive editor of news, based in New York;
• Dawn Chmielewski, a veteran of Recode, Deadline Hollywood and The Los Angeles Times, who will serve as senior editor of technology, media and entertainment, based in Los Angeles;
• Jillian D’Onfro, formerly of CNBC, will be a staff writer for technology, based in San Francisco;
• Ruth Umoh, also a CNBC veteran, who will cover diversity and inclusion out of New York; and
• Iain Martin, a former editor at Storyful, who will serve as European news editor, based in London.

“Our slate of new award-winning journalists will help us look more deeply in real-time at the people, the companies and the pressing social issues that continue to rapidly shape and redefine our global economy,” said Chief Content Officer Randall Lane in a statement.

Lauerman will oversee and direct day-to-day and breaking news coverage for Forbes across its platforms. Prior to Mic, Lauerman served as national projects editor for The Washington Post and served as a senior editor on the newspaper’s innovations team, where he helped build a new suite of mobile apps that established The Post as a national publication.

Lauerman will report to Lane.

Chmielewski and D’Onfro will report to Laura Mandaro, who joined Forbes in October 2018 and oversees tech and innovation coverage worldwide. Mandaro is building out a team of journalists who are committed to covering the new companies and industries that are redefining the economy in Silicon Valley and beyond.

“We are rapidly expanding our coverage of the most-important tech companies and stories with the hiring of Dawn and Jill, two experienced and instantly recognizable reporters,” she said. “They have proven track records of breaking corporate news. In the coming months, we’ll be bringing on more talent to chronicle innovation in Silicon Valley and around the world.”

Chmielewski will cover the companies and people behind the biggest disruption in entertainment since cable TV — streaming video.

D’Onfro will continue to report on Google while also examining artificial intelligence, whose emergence is reshaping the workplace in every industry, from automotive to healthcare, manufacturing to service.

Martin will lead day-to-day news coverage in Europe and the continued expansion of Forbes’ contributor network there.