FT hires Steel from WSJ to cover media

The Financial Times announced Wednesday the appointment of Emily Steel as U.S. media and marketing correspondent, covering content and distribution companies, digital media innovators and the wider marketing industry.

Steel joins the FT from the Wall Street Journal, where she most recently served as a social media editor.

“Emily’s obvious skills, in 140 characters or the best of long-form investigative journalism, will be a powerful addition to the FT’s global media coverage,” said Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, media editor of the Financial Times, in a statement. “She brings deep knowledge of the forces in digital media and online advertising that are transforming content and distribution companies old and new. Her appointment underscores the FT’s commitment to producing the most competitive, prescient and valuable coverage, in print and online.”

Steel joined the Journal in 2006, after graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill with a degree in journalism and political science. Until January, she reported about the digital media and marketing industries and contributed several stories to the Journal’s award-winning investigation about online privacy.  She has also reported for the St. Petersburg Times and Shanghai Daily.

Steel will be based in New York and succeeds David Gelles, who has been appointed the FT’s U.S. mergers and acquisitions correspondent and will remain in New York.