Engelberg, Steve

Aspirations for ASNE

Over the past decade, I’ve worked as an editor at The New York Times, The Oregonian, and ProPublica, the nonprofit investigative organization. At ProPublica, I’ve had a unique perspective on the problems and possibilities arising from this time of transition in our industry. We’ve collaborated on stories with nearly 80 news outlets, including more than 25 newspapers around the country. We’ve also worked with online startups like ourselves and broadcast partners from Frontline to NPR.

ASNE has a crucial role to play in building the person-to-person connections that speed innovation, and in helping news organizations develop new skills. Through my work at ProPublica, I have seen the enormous journalistic potential for delivering serious stories via the web. If elected to the board, I want to help ASNE foster nontraditional approaches and alliances with broadcast media, new digital players, and our other colleagues in the constantly evolving news ecosystem.

Career

Engelberg has been managing editor of ProPublica since its creation in 2008. Before joining the nonprofit investigative organization, he was a managing editor at The Oregonian for six years. Before that, he worked as an editor and reporter at The New York Times for 18 years, including stints in Washington, D.C., and Warsaw, Poland, as well as in New York.

Engelberg began his career as a reporter for The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk and The Dallas Morning News Washington bureau. After joining the Times Washington bureau, he served as national security reporter and as Warsaw bureau chief before returning in 1993 to focus on Washington-based reporting. Engelberg shared in two George Polk Awards for reporting: the first, in 1989, for articles on nuclear proliferation; the second, in 1994, for articles on U.S. immigration. A group of articles he co-authored in 1995 on an airplane crash was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize.

Engelberg’s work since 1996 has focused on editing investigative projects. He started the Times investigative unit in 1999. Projects he supervised at the Times on Mexican corruption (published in 1997) and the rise of Al Qaeda (published beginning in January 2001) were awarded the Pulitzer Prize. During his years at The Oregonian, the paper won the Pulitzer for breaking news and was a finalist for its investigative work on methamphetamines and charities intended to help the disabled. ProPublica won its first Pulitzer Prize in 2010 for a story about mercy killings at a New Orleans hospital after Hurricane Katrina. He is a co-author of "Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War."

ASNE Activities

Engelberg joined ASNE 2008 and has been a member of the Freedom of Information Committee.