WSJ’s DC bureau adds four reporters

Paul Beckett, the Washington bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, sent out the following announcement on Wednesday afternoon:

All: Please join me in welcoming four new staffers to our bureau. It is fantastic to have them aboard. Their bios are below.

Erica Orden is joining the Political team as a reporter, reporting to Jeanne Cummings

Brett Forrest is joining the National Security team as a reporter, reporting to Bob Ourlian

Del Wilber is joining the Justice Department team
as a reporter, reporting to Naftali Bendavid

Sarah Chacko is joining the Central Banks and Financial
Regulation teams as a multimedia producer, reporting to Mark Anderson and Nell Henderson

Here they are:

Sarah Chacko comes to the Journal after a stint with The Hill Extra: Healthcare, a new subscription product under The Hill; three years at Congressional Quarterly; and almost two years at Federal Times. Prior to that, she spent six years reporting in Texas and Louisiana. She is a graduate of Texas Christian University and Northwestern University. When not working, she takes solace in volunteering, brunching and shooting. She started in the bureau Tuesday.

Del Wilber has covered the Justice Department and FBI for the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg News for the past three years. Before that, he spent a decade at the Washington Post, writing about everything from crime sprees to plane crashes (he is a licensed pilot.) Del “played” varsity baseball at Northwestern University, where he acquired a skill that still proves helpful in coaching his sons’ youth teams: pitching batting practice. He has also published two books: Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan and A Good Month for Murder: The Inside Story of a Homicide Squad. He started in the bureau Tuesday.

Brett Forrest has written about crime and international affairs for Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, National Geographic, the New York Times Magazine, Time, Wired, Fortune, Foreign Policy, and Playboy. Formerly a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine, he was a member of the editorial staff that won the 2017 National Magazine Award for general excellence. Brett was co-producer of the ESPN/ABC true-crime documentary, Pin Kings, an Emmy nominee, as well as its related episodic podcast. He is the author of The Big Fix (William Morrow), an international crime bestseller. For a decade, Brett was stationed abroad, in Russia, Ukraine, and Brazil. He has worked in nearly 50 countries, and his articles have been syndicated in more than 30 languages. His work has appeared in The Best American Science and Nature Writing. He holds an English degree from the University of Michigan. He will start in the bureau on Monday.

Erica Orden has spent the past few months covering white-collar crime for The Wall Street Journal in New York, including securities-fraud and public-corruption cases, as well as the tumultuous exit of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. For nearly four years prior to that, she covered New York state politics, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s re-election bid; the trials of one-time legislative leaders Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos and the resulting impact on Albany; and the federal corruption investigation of a former top Cuomo aide. She has also worked in the paper’s Los Angeles bureau, where she covered the movie industry, and was a founding member of the Greater New York section. Prior to joining the WSJ in 2010, she wrote for New York Magazine. Erica is a graduate of Barnard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She will start in her new beat from New York May 1 and move to Washington soon after.

I know all four will make huge contributions to our coverage and add to already excellent momentum we have going in covering Washington in all its glory and in the most interesting and illuminating way possible for our growing readership.

Thanks and best,

Paul