ProPublica Announces First News Hires; Noted Reporters and Web Technologist Join New Investigative Team

ProPublica, a non-profit newsroom producing journalism in the public interest, today announced the first additions to its news staff. Jeff Gerth, formerly a staff correspondent for The New York Times, and Dafna Linzer, a staff writer for the Washington Post, are both joining as senior reporters. Scott Klein, vice president, website & technology, of The Nation, has been named director of online development.

New York, NY (Bluehost/PRWEB ) February 20, 2008 -- ProPublica, a non-profit newsroom producing journalism in the public interest, today announced the first additions to its news staff. Jeff Gerth, formerly a staff correspondent for The New York Times, and Dafna Linzer, a staff writer for the Washington Post, are both joining as senior reporters. Scott Klein, vice president, website & technology, of The Nation, has been named director of online development.

Paul E. Steiger, editor-in-chief of ProPublica, said, "Managing Editor Steve Engelberg and I are delighted to have been able to recruit Jeff Gerth, Dafna Linzer and Scott Klein to ProPublica. With these three stellar additions, we're off to a great start in building a very strong investigative news team."

ProPublica, when fully staffed later this year, will have the largest news staff in American journalism devoted solely to investigative reporting, with roughly 25 fulltime reporters and editors. ProPublica will be supported entirely by philanthropy and will provide the articles it produces, free of charge, both through its own web site and to leading news organizations selected with an eye toward maximizing the impact of each article.

Stephen Engelberg, managing editor of ProPublica, noted, "We've received nearly 900 resumes from journalists since ProPublica was announced back in October. Having opened our doors in January, we've now completed our initial review of this terrific array of talent, and further assessed our own needs. The strong hires we're announcing today are just the beginning of our efforts to quickly build a first-rate news staff for ProPublica."

Jeff Gerth worked as an investigative reporter at The New York Times from 1976 through 2005. His work has twice been honored with the Pulitzer Prize. He also won a George Polk Award. His often-prescient coverage has run the gamut from Al Qaeda to Enron, from Whitewater to Chinese technology transfers. During 2004 he was a visiting professor at Princeton University, where he taught an undergraduate seminar on investigative reporting. Gerth is also the co-author (with Don Van Natta Jr.), of Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton, published last year.

Dafna Linzer has been a national security reporter for The Washington Post, covering intelligence and nonproliferation, since 2004. Her coverage of the Iranian nuclear issue won the United Nations 2005 Gold Medal award for international reporting. Before joining the Post, she spent ten years as a foreign correspondent for Associated Press. Based in Jerusalem, New York, and the United Nations, she reported from more than a dozen countries covering terrorism, nonproliferation, and conflict. Her reporting from Baghdad, on the hunt for weapons of mass destruction, won national attention and praise, ending with her report that the fruitless hunt had quietly come to an end.

Scott Klein has worked at thenation.com since 1998, directing all business aspects of the site. He designed and directed the development of the site's content management system, which is now in use by many other websites in The Nation's category. Earlier in his career, Klein worked at what is now New York Times Digital, and at Conde Nast Publications.

For more information on ProPublica, go to http://ProPublica.org

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