WSJ’s “Heard on the Street” hires new staffer, promotes another

Spencer Jakab, editor of the “Heard on the Street” column of The Wall Street Journal, sent out the following announcement on Wednesday:

There have been two notable changes recently at Heard on the Street, the Journal’s financial and economic analysis column — a promotion and a new face.

Nathaniel Taplin will fill the vacant role of Asia Heard editor, overseeing our Hong Kong based columnists. Nate, a fluent Mandarin speaker with a strong grasp of China’s economy and culture, has excelled since joining Heard in 2016, keeping us ahead of the curve on stories such as the trade war and the coronavirus pandemic. Before joining the WSJ Nate was a Shanghai-based reporter for Reuters and before that a global energy analyst for Dragonomics/Gavekal. He has an M.A. from the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

Nate is also a connoisseur of weirdly patriotic hot pot restaurants and a selfless colleague. Recent global travel disruptions forced him to work from a hotel room in Hawaii with only his girlfriend to keep him company.

I am also pleased to announce that Jinjoo Lee is our newest columnist. She will be based in New York, initially at her kitchen table on the Upper West Side, but soon (we hope) at a real desk with the rest of us at 1211 Avenue of the Americas.

Jinjoo was an associate editor at Spark Spread, a publication covering the utility industry, where she worked since 2015. She is a graduate of Cornell University where she was a news editor at the Daily Sun, coordinating coverage of women’s and minority affairs. Jinjoo is, by my count, now the fourth person on the Heard team to have passed at least the first level of the rigorous Chartered Financial Analyst exam. We are rooting for her to quickly complete the next two so that Charley can stop lording his gigantic, framed certificate over the entire newsroom.

Jinjoo is covering the retail and energy industries. After receiving a message that there was “good news,” Jinjoo took 24 hours to return my call because she was at a silent retreat. Such calming habits will come in handy once she is forced to spend time with the Heard team.

Please join me in a rousing work from home cheer for Nate and Jinjoo.