Last named acting head of live journalism of WSJ

Elena Cherney, the editor of news features and special projects at The Wall Street Journal, sent out the following announcement on Thursday:

I’m pleased to announce that Kim Last will serve as acting head of Live Journalism, following Nikki Waller’s move to the corporate team.

Kim joined the Journal two years ago as deputy editor of the Live Journalism team. In coming up with themes and big ideas for conference agendas and in her work developing sessions with reporters and editors, Kim has shown herself to be a strong advocate for the Journal’s live platform. She has worked on most of the Journal’s highest-profile Live Journalism franchises, including Women In, WSJ Tech Live and the Future of Everything Festival, of which she is editorial director. To pull off the three-day FOE event last spring, Kim worked with reporters and editors around the newsroom to identify more than 90 speakers on the future of business, technology, media, sports and arts. She also worked closely with the conference team on the business side led by Leigh Gilmore to make the event a success.

Kim is taking on the challenge of leading the Live Journalism team at a unique moment of change, when the usual busy schedule of in-person events has been paused and the group is developing a series of virtual programs. Starting with last month’s Health Forum and CEO Council offerings this month, Kim and the team will be experimenting with formats to figure out how the Journal can continue to deliver Live Journalism on virtual platforms.

Before joining the Journal, Kim headed conference development at Vox Media, where her duties included working with the Recode and Vox.com teams. She also worked as a senior editor at Fast Company, where she launched the magazine’s Innovation Festival, and did a stint at Quartz, where she helped launch their events. Kim studied political science and American studies at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. A native New Yorker, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband, and in her free time enjoys traveling and collecting cookbooks.

Please join me in wishing Kim every success.

Elena