Quartz hires four new staffers

Quartz editor in chief Katherine Bell announced Thursday four new additions to the newsroom.

They are:

Harish Menon, Quartz India editor.

This is Menon’s second time working with QZ; he first joined in January 2016 as a desk editor in India, before being promoted to senior editor and then co-editor of the edition. Most recently, Menon has been a consulting writer with NDTV, and has previously worked for a range of newspapers and agencies that include the Times of India and Press Trust of India.

As editor of Quartz India, he’ll oversee the team’s coverage and contributions to membership, as well as the eventual launch of a Quartz India weekly email. Menon will start in October and is currently based in Mumbai.

Aurora Almendral, a new senior reporter in Asia

As a freelancer, Almendral has just been reporting from the US-Mexico border for an upcoming story. Her recent work has included a NYT magazine piece about an emissions-reducing experiment to retrofit cargo ships with updated sails, a deep dive for Nikkei on why global shipping is such a mess right now, and the forgotten essential workers at sea.

She has also covered breaking news for NBC out of Asia, speaks Spanish and Filipino, and has some Arabic. In a previous life, she researched the shadow banking systems of Senegalese and Moroccan migrants in Madrid. Aurora began in September, and is based in Bangkok, Thailand.

Courtney Vinopal, a breaking business news reporter

Vinopal comes to Quartz from PBS NewsHour, where she has been a general assignment reporter focused on stories at the intersection of economics, policy, and culture. She has also worked as a producer at the Washington bureau of France 2 Television, and as a fellow at Washingtonian Magazine.

Vinpoal has a bachelor’s degree in English literature and French from Denison University, and a master’s in journalism from Columbia. Courtney also began in September, and is based in Washington DC.

Morgan Haefner, a new deputy email editor

Haefner comes to Quartz from Becker’s Hospital Review, where she wrote and edited stories and email newsletters, leading the efforts as managing editor. She has written on the rise of Covid-19 consultants, diversity in hospital C-suites, and how Covid affected mental health in children.

She has studied Arabic, and spent time in Cambodia learning about religion and news writing in Asia. Haefner will work with Liz Weber and Susan Howson on curating, editing, and writing Quartz’s flagship email, the Daily Brief as well as the Weekly Obsession, managing the homepage, and crafting Essentials, and will ultimately be our Sunday email editor. She starts in October, and will be based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.