Assistant managing editor, newsletters
WBUR, Boston
Age: 32
In three words: “Enthusiastic, energized, dedicated”
What colleagues say: Meagan has helped develop a clear and vibrant “voice” for our newsletters. Her project planning and analysis has set a gold standard for project development here at WBUR. She’s thoughtful about developing new audiences and deeply engaging them. She’s a dedicated, mission-driven editor and works collaboratively and cross-departmentally.
Meagan was one of two editors who spearheaded Field Guide to Boston, a multidimensional collection that enriches Bostonians’ understanding of their city and connects them to one another through reporting, visual journalism, podcasts, audio postcards, short-form video on Instagram and TikTok, field trips and crowdsourcing.
The project is reaching new and younger audiences and increasing local digital visits to the material, a key performance indicator. It exemplified a mission and audience-driven perspective, and is a true service to the city.
What Meagan says
Decision to work in public media: I’ve always had a love for local journalism and digital media. I started my career at Boston.com and took a quick detour from news after the 2016 election to write about the business side of the snack industry (it was as tasty as it sounds). But I wanted to get back into doing work that felt essential to people’s daily lives.
Public media does a great job of telling stories that connect with people on every level of their being, and that’s the kind of journalism I want to be a part of.
Key accomplishments: The evolution of WBUR’s newsletter portfolio is one of my team’s greatest accomplishments so far. We went from about five newsletters, no audience growth strategy or unified design and only one person — me! — dedicated to email. Now we have 11 growing and highly engaging newsletters, three full-time newsletter staff members and a deep investment in how we turn subscribers into WBUR super-fans who support our journalism.
The Field Guide to Boston, a collection of useful guides and stories that capture what it means to live in Boston, is the single body of work I’m most proud of. It included the serious (politics, Boston’s racist reputation), the useful (how to get around on the MBTA) and the fun (how to make new pals). And I think that perfectly exemplifies the type of reporting that excites me most: projects that help us feel more connected to our neighbors and speak to the many facets of our lives.
Inspired by: I’m a true believer that being an active participant in the world and your local community makes for a more curious and inspired person. I’m quite the extrovert and love talking to people! Hearing about their careers, hopes, frustrations and joys helps me better understand various audience personas and what information people want more of from local newsrooms.
Advice for young public media professionals: Don’t let people tell you audience work isn’t real journalism. Newsletter and homepage curation, headline writing, story formatting, social media — they tell people about the news and what’s important before they even read a story. They also shape peoples’ perceptions of your organization.
My advice is to sit with your digital team and hear more about why they make the calls they do about which wires to publish, which headlines, SEO, photo selection or timing for a social post. No matter your beat or medium, it will make you a better journalist and collaborator in your newsroom.
Advice for public media leaders: Invest in audience work. Building trust, especially with underserved audiences that have been previously ignored or hurt by media, is a long game. It won’t result in donor dollars tomorrow.
To survive the shift in the media landscape, we have to grow our audience outside of the NPR bubble. Whether it’s hosting events where our reporters answer questions, WhatsApp groups, translating stories or establishing partnerships with other media organizations: All these things are so important to broadening the public media circle.
Funniest thing that’s happened on the job: During the pandemic I got to moderate a virtual conversation with Chef Jacques Pépin for our gala. We both joked about over-indulging on wine while cooking during the early days of lockdown. Everyone at my table started chiming in with their cooking stories. It was silly and relatable, and he had me laughing the whole time.
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