NerdWallet expanding into investigations, hires Heikes

Personal finance site NerdWallet is expanding into investigative journalism.

The San Francisco-based site has hired away Los Angeles Times’ investigative and projects editor Drex Heikes to lead that effort.

It was his second stint at the Times. In his first 18 years at the newspaper, he worked as executive editor of the Los Angeles Times Sunday magazine, foreign affairs editor in the Washington bureau and acting New York bureau chief for coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks.

He left the Times in 2005 to help remake the Las Vegas Sun into a daily devoted to enterprise, investigations and analysis. He assigned and edited the stories and editorials at the Sun that won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize gold medal for public service. He returned to the Times in 2012.

Heikes’s first hire is Alex Richards, who was training director for Investigative Reporters and Editors for the past two years.

Before IRE, Richards worked at the Chicago Tribune, where he had been a reporter specializing in investigative data journalism. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer prize in 2011 and was awarded the Goldsmith and the Scripps Howard Farfel investigative reporting awards, among others, for the Las Vegas Sun series “Do No Harm,” with ProPublica’s Marshall Allen.

“We’re looking to hire other proven investigative reporters,” said Maggie Leung, senior director of content for NerdWallet.

NerdWallet now has a team of 90 staff writers and editors who break down complexity and help consumers make personal finance decisions.