For Immediate Release: January 24, 2022
Media Contact: Maria Landron | [email protected]
Latest in a Series of Major Hirings, Additional Positions, and Product Launches for the Leading Online Life Sciences Publication
BOSTON — STAT, the pre-eminent media company reporting on health, science, and medicine, today announced that Laura Chang will join its leadership team in the newly created position of editorial director.
Chang’s appointment follows her three-decade career at The New York Times, where she served in a variety of leadership roles, most recently as deputy editor of The Upshot, and previously as head of the science desk for seven years. Chang will have a wide-ranging portfolio at STAT that draws upon her deep background in science, health policy, national politics, and data journalism to further raise its journalistic ambitions during a period of rapid growth. The site is now hiring for five more new reporting roles, as well as another nine jobs in product, design, and advertising.
“As STAT enters its seventh year, our recruitment of Laura after her extraordinary career at the Times is testament to the high caliber of our journalism as well as our inviting, collaborative culture,’’ said Rick Berke, co-founder and executive editor of STAT. “Laura is joining a powerhouse leadership team at a time of significant growth.’’
“STAT has been one of the smartest, surest guides to the pandemic and to the life sciences writ large,’’ Chang said. ‘’I’m excited to join their dynamite team.”
In her prolific career at The New York Times, Chang started as a copy editor on the national desk, and quickly rose to work on some of the biggest and most important stories of our time. As national projects editor, she guided a deep dive on the spread of a virulent strain of E. coli. She was the Times editor who stayed up all night excerpting the 35,000-word Unabomber manifesto. She conceived and edited a special section marking the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
In 2014, she helped David Leonhardt found The Upshot, the vertical that combines data visualizations with journalistic analysis.
In all, Chang was an editor for 13 years on the Times’ science desk. She oversaw the coverage of new and disappearing diseases, the Human Genome Project, embryonic stem cells, string theory, the science of the 9/11 attacks and its aftermath, the quest for longevity, and the first self-driving car. She was editor of “Scientists at Work: Profiles of Today’s Groundbreaking Scientists from Science Times.”
Originally from Seattle, Chang studied journalism and psychology at the University of Washington. Before moving to New York, she worked at the Seattle Times.
At STAT, Chang will take on a wide range of editing and strategic responsibilities, helping expand its franchise as the leading media company reporting on health, medicine, and the life sciences. She will begin her tenure in March and will be based in New York City.
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ABOUT STAT:
Founded in 2015, STAT is a national digital media brand that focuses on delivering fast, deep, and tough-minded journalism about health, medicine, and the life sciences. STAT takes readers inside academic labs, biotech boardrooms, and political backrooms, casting a critical eye on scientific discoveries, scrutinizing corporate strategies, and chronicling the roiling battles for talent, money, and market share. With an award-winning newsroom, STAT provides indispensable insights and exclusive stories on the technologies, personalities, power brokers, and political forces driving massive changes in the life sciences industry — and a revolution in human health.