Washington Post hires business of food reporter

Washington Post business editor David Cho, deputy business editor Zachary Goldfarb and economics and policy editor Suzanne Goldenberg sent out the following announcement:

We are thrilled to announce that Laura Reiley is joining The Washington Post as a reporter covering the business of food.

Laura is ideally suited for a position that allows her to explore how we grow, kill, pick, process, market and distribute everything we eat and drink – and what it’s doing to our bodies, the economy and the environment.

As Laura said in her memo about the position: “I believe you can tell any story through the lens of food. Eating is among the most democratic of all human activities (the others too scatological, maudlin or ribald for me to want to hang a career on).”

A finalist for the Pulitzer and James Beard prizes in 2017, Laura spent a decade as the food critic for the Tampa Bay Times. She previously worked at the San Francisco Chronicle and The Baltimore Sun.

At the Tampa Bay Times, she developed a digital following for her smart and witty coverage of the restaurant scene and her deeper explorations, including her investigation into the inflated claims of the sustainable and local food movement. Her reporting sounded the alarm about the existential threat to U.S. wild oysters.

Laura received degrees from the University of Virginia, in English, and from the California Culinary Academy. She and her husband, Jonathan Rottenberg, a clinical psychology professor, have an adult daughter studying public health at Johns Hopkins University.

Please welcome Laura when she joins us in Washington on March 4.