WSJ hires Stiles from NPR

Matt Stiles, who is the data editor for National Public Radio’s news apps team, has been hired by The Wall Street Journal.

Stiles will be an economics reporter at The Journal.

In an email to Talking Biz News, he wrote, “It’s not strictly defined yet, but generally I’ll be a data-focused reporter on the economics team. But I hope I’ll also be a resource for politics reporters and others in the bureau.”

In his NPR role, Stiles is responsible for obtaining and analyzing databases and using them to help the team tell interactive stories on npr.org. He also works with reporters and editors in the newsroom to help them understand the data they encounter on their beats.

Stiles began his career at NPR in June 2011, as the data reporting coordinator for NPR’s StateImpact, a project started to develop state-focused content as well as identify and train public media journalists in cross-platform reporting and digital storytelling tools. Stiles supported the project’s reporters, training them in ways to use data in stories. He also oversaw the development of data-related tools in the StateImpact content management system.

Stiles helped create an interactive application related to fracking in Pennsylvania as part of a package of drilling stories by the StateImpact team that received a DuPont-Columbia Award for member stations WITF and WHYY. Stiles also helped create “Deals for Developers,” an interactive story in partnership with WAMU in Washington, DC. The series was a finalist in the public service category of the Online News Association awards. Other projects Stiles helped develop for NPR include a crowd-sourced database of playgrounds designed to include children with disabilities, a map of the damage caused by the 2013 Moore, Okla., tornado and a database of workers killed in grain bins throughout the United States.

Prior to joining NPR, Stiles worked as a reporter in Texas. From 2001-2005 he was a reporter at The Dallas Morning News, where he wrote about local and federal law enforcement. In 2005, Stiles moved to The Houston Chronicle where he covered City Hall and state government. Then, in 2009, Stiles worked as a reporter and news applications editor at The Texas Tribune, a digital news startup in Austin.

In 2011, Stiles was given a special distinction citation at the Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism recognizing his work at The Texas Tribune.