Critically Acclaimed Experience Expands to Newest Immersive Platform with Exclusive Features and a Limited-Time $0.99 Offer Through EOY; Deepens Creative Alliance with the Award-winning XR Studio

 

 

BYRON BAY, NSW, AUSTRALIA AND LOS ANGELES, CA, USA, October 21, 2025 — New Canvas today announced that its award-winning immersive project, Atlas Obscura VR, is available as a launch title on the highly anticipated Samsung’s Galaxy XR (aka “Project Moohan”) mixed reality headset powered by Google’s Android XR platform. On Moohan, users will experience the most visually stunning and feature-rich version of the app to date complete with Android XR-exclusive eye-tracking and the highest resolution yet available. The headset is the first major product to be built on the new Android XR platform.

This expansion to Samsung’s platform marks the next evolution in New Canvas’ partnership with Atlas Obscura and a milestone moment for the studio, which celebrates its fifth anniversary this year. The new app release also adds to New Canvas’ roster of trusted XR partnerships, which now includes Meta, Samsung and Google, reinforcing its position as a global presence in XR storytelling. To celebrate the launch and welcome new audiences to Samsung’s platform, for a limited-time Atlas Obscura VR on Galaxy XR is available in the Google Play store for a special price of just $0.99 (regularly $12.99) through the end of 2025.

 

 

“Atlas Obscura has always been about embracing curiosity and empowering discovery. VR allows us to extend that mission in a deeply personal and transportive way. Working with New Canvas as a trusted partner to launch Atlas Obscura VR on a groundbreaking new platform like Android XR is both thrilling and inspiring,” said Doug Baldinger, Atlas Obscura Entertainment’s Chief Content Officer. 

The World’s Hidden Wonders, Now in Unprecedented Detail

Atlas Obscura VR invites audiences to travel beyond conventional guidebooks, immersing them in some of the world’s most unusual, mysterious and awe-inspiring places. Whether marveling at the beauty of remote natural landscapes or uncovering the secrets of human ingenuity, virtual travelers will find themselves transported to the extraordinary corners of our world from within their homes.

Atlas Obscura VR takes users on an unforgettable journey through three interactive episodes, each blending high-quality 360° video, detailed photogrammetry and narration by the authors of the Atlas Obscura book. The immersive experience also includes photos and imagery of 50+ global destinations from the Atlas Obscura archives as well as three fully interactive and immersive episodes. These episodes cover a diverse range of destinations including:

• Turda Salt Mine: a salt mine in Romania that’s also the world’s most spectacular underground formation shaped by people
• Winchester Mystery House: a spooky mega-mansion in California
• Temples of Damanhur: a subterranean, living lab for the future, created by a federation of spiritual communities in the Italian Alps

 

A New Format for Immersive, Factual Storytelling

The Atlas Obscura VR experience treads the fine line between interactivity and passive narrative, arriving at a sense of ‘audience agency’ that should deepen the experience and provide a personalised unique journey, while not demanding too much of the audience.

“Atlas Obscura VR has always been about transforming curiosity into experience, inviting audiences to explore, not just observe. With Samsung’s Galaxy XR, that sense of discovery reaches a new level of realism and connection, while the fidelity, interactivity and presence of the new headset bring that vision into sharper focus. This is the future we imagined when we first created the app,” said Nathan Anderson, Co-Founder & Executive Producer, New Canvas. “We’ve gone far beyond a simple port, remastering content and reimagining the user experience for eye-tracking and next-generation storytelling. It’s thrilling that the journey which began on Samsung Gear VR now continues on their most advanced XR device yet.”

 

The re-release builds on New Canvas’s commitment to creating meaningful, immersive storytelling experiences. By utilizing the new Samsung platform, the app delivers seamless interactivity and immersive presence, driving the key benefits of virtual reality.

“Launching Atlas Obscura VR on Samsung’s ‘Project Moohan’ with Android XR demonstrates how New Canvas is forging the next chapter of immersive storytelling,” said Wadooah Wali, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, New Canvas. “With partnerships now spanning Meta, Samsung and Google, we are building a global network that amplifies our creative work and helps shape the future of XR. As we mark our fifth anniversary, this moment is both a celebration of our progress and a preview of the future we’re creating.”

 

 

Launched in 2017 and remastered in 2024, Atlas Obscura VR has become a landmark in immersive factual storytelling. Originally developed and produced by Start VR (now known as Start Beyond), the Atlas Obscura VR app was transferred to New Canvas when the company was spun out of Start VR in late 2020. New for Samsung XR, the Atlas Obscura VR experience is now available in the Google Play store.

 

Download the app today! 

 

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About Atlas Obscura:

Atlas Obscura is an Emmy and James Beard award-winning media and travel company. Widely celebrated for building the definitive, community-driven platform for discovering the world’s hidden wonders, we also publish best selling books, make the #1 travel podcast in the world, offer top-of-class storytelling, and once-in-a-lifetime trips. Our community-driven platform is the Atlas itself, a collection of more than 30,000 wondrous places around the world. It is a collaborative project. We depend on our community of explorers to help us discover amazing places and share them with the world. www.atlasobscura.com 

About New Canvas:

New Canvas is an award-winning XR studio committed to pushing the boundaries of immersive media. With a focus on socially relevant storytelling, we create compelling and innovative experiences for breakthrough platforms that captivates and resonates with global audiences. New Canvas is focused on developing content and formats to help drive mainstream adoption of immersive media and is a founding member of the Byron Bay XR Collective. We honour Australia’s First Nations Peoples, acknowledging the Arakwal, the traditional custodians of the Bundjalung Country, on which New Canvas was founded. For additional information, please visit: www.newcanvas.co.

 

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Media Contacts:

Atlas Obscura

rebecca@atlasobscura.com 

New Canvas

hi@newcanvas.co 

NEW YORK – Atlas Obscura, the leading community-focused travel platform inspiring wonder and curiosity about the world’s most remarkable places, today announced Kelly McEvers is joining The Atlas Obscura Podcast as a guest co-host and contributor. McEvers, a two-time Peabody Award winner and one of public radio’s most distinctive voices, brings her celebrated storytelling to the podcast that has captivated millions of listeners with stories of the world’s most strange and fascinating places.

“We’re thrilled to bring Kelly’s signature voice and perspective to the team and to our audience,” said Doug Baldinger, Executive Producer of The Atlas Obscura Podcast. “Her ability to find compelling human stories in unexpected places and her infectious curiosity make her a perfect fit for our mission to inspire wonder in our listeners.”

McEvers is best known as the founding host of NPR’s Embedded, an award-winning documentary podcast that was recently named one of Time magazine’s “100 Best Podcasts of All Time.” She also served as host of NPR’s flagship daily news magazine All Things Considered and was the founding host of NPR’s daily news podcast Consider This. McEvers has contributed to This American Life, Marketplace, the BBC, and The World, and worked extensively as an international correspondent, reporting from Asia, the former Soviet Union, and the Middle East, where she covered the Arab Spring and the wars in Iraq and Syria. With veteran radio producer Jay Allison, she made Diary of a Bad Year, a radio documentary about the life of a war correspondent. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, Esquire, Foreign Policy, Time, The New Republic, Slate, The Washington Monthly, the Christian Science Monitor, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She began her journalism career at the Chicago Tribune.

“I have spent most of my life roaming the world, discovering remarkable people and places,” said McEvers. “I can’t wait to explore more with the Atlas Obscura audience.” McEvers currently lives in Los Angeles, where she is a “daily but still somewhat mediocre” surfer.

Atlas Obscura’s award-winning podcast program has been consistently recognized for excellence in audio storytelling. This year, Atlas Obscura won 8 Signal Awards, including Gold for Best Daily Podcast, and its podcast Charlie’s Place was named as one of BBC’s Best Podcasts of 2025.

The Atlas Obscura Podcast, a celebration of the world’s strange, fascinating, and wondrous places, is a co-production of Atlas Obscura and SiriusXM Podcasts. New episodes featuring McEvers will begin later this month.

About Atlas Obscura

Atlas Obscura is the leading community-focused travel platform inspiring wonder and curiosity about the world’s most remarkable places. Through its award-winning content, unique experiences, and community-driven platform featuring more than 30,000 wondrous places, Atlas Obscura serves millions of passionate travelers seeking authentic, off-the-beaten-path discoveries. The company publishes bestselling books including the No. 1 New York Times bestseller “Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders,” and operates digital products that help people find amazing things to do when they are traveling.

For more information about Atlas Obscura, visit www.atlasobscura.com.

Media Contact: Rebecca Cruz at rebecca@atlasobscura.com

NEW YORK – Atlas Obscura, the leading community-focused travel platform inspiring wonder and curiosity about the world’s most remarkable places, today announced award-winning, multilingual executive Carl Le Dunff is joining the company as Vice President, Accounts, International.

Le Dunff will lead the international expansion of Atlas Obscura’s sales and marketing efforts, developing strategic partnerships and scaling the company’s global brand presence across key markets. He will report to Chief Revenue Officer Sara Ewell.

“After several years of double-digit year-over-year growth in the U.S. market, I’m thrilled to be expanding the team in this way. The international market represents a new and significant growth opportunity for Atlas Obscura, and I couldn’t be more excited to have Carl Le Dunff leading that effort as our VP, Accounts, International,” said Ewell.

“Atlas Obscura has always inspired me with its unique lens on the world — blending curiosity, culture, and storytelling,” said Le Dunff. “I’m thrilled to help scale this vision globally and connect even more people to the extraordinary experiences that make our planet so endlessly fascinating.”

Le Dunff is a seasoned global executive known for building strategic partnerships and launching market-expanding initiatives across four continents. Prior to joining Atlas Obscura, he spent more than 20 years at The Wall Street Journal, where he most recently served as Executive Director of Media & Marketing Solutions for South America, the Middle East, and Africa. During his tenure, he helped expand WSJ’s international presence, launching the Latin American edition of WSJ. Magazine and leading multimillion-dollar partnerships with global brands across travel, luxury, and public sectors.

Fluent in French, English, Portuguese, and Spanish, Le Dunff brings a rare blend of cultural fluency and commercial expertise to Atlas Obscura. Originally from France, he has lived and worked across Europe, the U.S., and Latin America, and traveled to more than 80 countries. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Management from ESCP Business School and a BA in Germanic Languages from Catholic University of Angers.

Le Dunff’s appointment comes amid an exciting period of international growth for Atlas Obscura as it continues to build the world’s most inspiring travel community platform.

About Atlas Obscura

Atlas Obscura is the leading community-focused travel platform inspiring wonder and curiosity about the world’s most remarkable places. Through its award-winning content, unique experiences, and community-driven platform featuring more than 30,000 wondrous places, Atlas Obscura serves millions of passionate travelers seeking authentic, off-the-beaten-path discoveries. The company publishes bestselling books including the No. 1 New York Times bestseller “Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders,” and operates digital products that help people find amazing things to do when they are traveling.

For more information about Atlas Obscura, visit www.atlasobscura.com.

For questions or interview requests, please contact Rebecca Cruz at rebecca@atlasobscura.com.

NEW YORK – Atlas Obscura, the leading community-focused travel platform inspiring wonder and curiosity about the world’s most remarkable places, today announced award-winning journalist Emma Patti is joining the company as Executive Editor. 

Patti will lead the operational and strategic deployment of Atlas Obscura’s content, ensuring it is designed to help people reach their travel goals and show off destinations in fresh and inspiring ways. She will keep Atlas Obscura’s communities at the forefront, involving them in content creation and curation. She will report to Chief Product Transformation Officer Lauren Johnston. 

“Emma is an innovative and results-driven leader and her experience in growing audiences and connecting communities will be critical as Atlas Obscura continues its work to build the world’s best travel community app for passionate, frequent travelers,” Johnston said. 

Patti is an award-winning editor with deep experience in audience-focused content, community building, visual storytelling and editorial product management. She was most recently Managing Editor for The Baltimore Banner where she was part of a team of journalists who led a Pulitzer-prize winning project and was instrumental in helping to build the non-profit into Maryland’s top news source in just three years. Prior to joining The Banner, Patti led digital and visual strategy teams at Education Week, The Baltimore Sun and several city and regional magazines. She has a degree in photojournalism and multimedia from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is currently pursuing her MBA, also at UNC. She lives in Baltimore with her partner, son, two dogs, and 57 house plants.

Her favorite off-the-beaten-path travel experience is from the West Fjords in Iceland. “We stumbled upon one of Iceland’s classic, roadside hot pots. Soaking in the geothermal waters in pitch blackness was magical, and a little eerie. But I thoroughly enjoyed just being able to take in the vast landscape, the stars and listen to the sounds of the area.” 

Patti’s appointment comes amid an exciting moment of expansion for the company.

About Atlas Obscura

Atlas Obscura is the leading community-focused travel platform inspiring wonder and curiosity about the world’s most remarkable places. Through its award-winning content, unique experiences, and community-driven platform featuring more than 30,000 wondrous places, Atlas Obscura serves millions of passionate travelers seeking authentic, off-the-beaten-path discoveries. The company publishes bestselling books including the No. 1 New York Times bestseller “Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders,” and operates digital products that help people find amazing things to do when they are traveling.

For more information about Atlas Obscura, visit www.atlasobscura.com.

For questions or interview requests, please contact spokesman John Stoll at john@ridgelywalsh.com 

Community-focused travel platform adds three senior executives and promotes three key leaders as company accelerates growth strategy

 

NEW YORK – Atlas Obscura, the leading community-focused travel platform inspiring wonder and curiosity about the world’s most remarkable places, today announced a significant expansion of its leadership team with three new senior executives and three strategic internal promotions. The moves position the company to accelerate its growth as it builds the world’s best travel community app for passionate, frequent travelers.

“Six months into my tenure as CEO, Atlas Obscura is highly profitable and ready to build for its future,” said Chief Executive Officer Louise Story. “This team of global leaders will help us to serve passionate travelers in fulfilling their travel dreams with tools and world-class content that shows off destinations in fresh and inspiring ways.”

Joining Atlas Obscura

Asmaa Quorrich joins as Global Chief Marketing Officer, bringing over two decades of experience building and transforming global brands across CPG and Travel & Tourism. Most recently, she served as Global Chief Marketing Officer for Jumeirah Group and Saudi Tourism Authority, where she built the brand and grew its conversion through solid strategies and award-winning campaigns. Her career spans roles at major brands including KFC as Chief Marketing Officer for MENA and Pakistan, where she led a $1 billion brand transformation, and marketing leadership positions at PepsiCo across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She began her career at P&G and is the Founder & CEO of ThinkBig Consulting.

Natalie Moore joins as Head of Product, coming from the White House’s renowned Digital Services Office, where she created new products serving many groups of Americans. Her work included rebuilding the U.S. Refugee Program app, creating digital tools to better serve veterans, and improving SNAP benefit delivery for families in need. Before the White House, she worked at National Public Radio (NPR), where she focused on audience engagement and launching features to attract and retain new users through data analysis, A/B testing, and deep understanding of NPR’s diverse audience.

Kamilah Mitchell-Thomas joins as Chief People Officer, bringing extensive experience as a seasoned CHRO and board director who has led people strategy across industries ranging from media to technology to global turnarounds. She was previously Chief People Officer of Roku, Dow Jones, and SVP of People and Culture at A&E Networks, as well as Chief People Officer of a private equity-backed company, helping organizations scale, reinvent, and thrive.

 

Strategic Internal Promotions

Atlas Obscura also announced three key internal promotions that recognize exceptional leadership and position the company for transformation:

Lauren Johnston has been promoted to Chief Product Transformation Officer. Since arriving at Atlas Obscura as interim Executive Editor in June, she has accelerated the pace of change, innovation, and collaboration across the organization. With her rare combination of content expertise and product experience from leadership roles at Yahoo News, content strategy at New York Daily News, and reporting and editing roles at Newsday, amNewYork, CBS News, and People, she will lead world-class content teams and help transform of Atlas Obscura’s products for the AI era.  

Daniel Sobo has been promoted to SVP, Head of Engineering and Technology. This expanded role recognizes his essential leadership in scaling Atlas Obscura’s digital platform to serve millions of travelers, as well as leading the technical development and launch of the company’s native apps. He is deeply involved in transforming how AI supports both internal operations and consumer-facing products and serves as a key advisor on AI strategy. Before joining Atlas Obscura, he built products for startups in healthcare, data analytics, and travel.

Doug Baldinger has been named Chief Content Officer of AO Entertainment, the company’s unit producing extraordinary content that reaches millions of travelers through books, podcasts, and films. He has been at Atlas Obscura since 2018, leading all content at the company, including the video unit. Before joining Atlas Obscura, he was Vice President of Creative Development at Blue Man Group.

Revenue Organization Expansion

The company’s revenue growth continues under Sara Ewell, Chief Revenue Officer, who has driven Atlas Obscura’s significant advertising business growth over her 3.5 years with the company. She is currently building out a larger advertising sales organization and expanding the destination marketing organization (DMO) team. 

Lesli Krishnaiah recently joined as Director, Domestic DMO Sales, bringing over 20 years of DMO sales experience and deep travel-industry expertise, including roles at Mountain News and Outside Magazine. She leads domestic DMO sales alongside Jacquelyn Blackwell, Senior Manager, Travel & Tourism Partnerships, who joined last year.

The company will soon announce the addition of international DMO and international brand sales leadership, viewing international expansion as an area of significant growth opportunity.  They will join Alecia Dalessio who is leading domestic brands as our Senior Director of Brand Partnerships.

About Atlas Obscura

Atlas Obscura is the leading community-focused travel platform inspiring wonder and curiosity about the world’s most remarkable places. Through its award-winning content, unique experiences, and community-driven platform featuring more than 30,000 wondrous places, Atlas Obscura serves millions of passionate travelers seeking authentic, off-the-beaten-path discoveries. The company publishes bestselling books including the No. 1 New York Times bestseller “Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders,” and operates digital products that help people find amazing things to do when they are traveling.

For more information about Atlas Obscura, visit www.atlasobscura.com.

 

 

Hello Atlas Obscura team,

 

We’re excited to share that we are partnering with The Twenty One, a team of audience tacticians and engineers known for driving rapid growth at leading digital brands. The team from The Twenty One will work alongside all of us on a day-to-day basis throughout the next several months to accelerate our community growth and engagement.

 

The Twenty One’s founder, Jonathan Gupta-Buckley, and other senior executives previously worked at Dow Jones, so we’re familiar with their ingenuity and high standards. They will be working closely with the Atlas Obscura team to increase the pace of growth across SEO, newsletters, paid media, registration, social media channels and other areas.

 

We are also expanding our engineering resources in partnership with The Twenty One. Dan will play a pivotal role in engaging with the team of engineers who will work with us to make growth and engagement-oriented changes on our platforms.

 

Our in-house team has made great strides in growing the Atlas Obscura audience. Digital media is up against increasingly strong headwinds, and with its company tagline “proudly impatient,” The Twenty One is well-positioned to bring AO’s excellent content to an even wider audience. You’ll learn more about this work, and have the chance to ask questions and shape future workflow, in upcoming meetings.

 

In the meantime, please help us welcome The Twenty One team to the Atlas Obscura world!

 

Thanks,
Leslie and Louise

Atlas Obscura, a leading travel-community platform, is excited to announce that Christopher Fabian, a global technologist and innovator, has joined its board of directors as an independent board member.

 

Fabian joins as Atlas Obscura is embarking on a new phase of platform development to open its capacities to a broader audience around the world.

 

“We’re thrilled to welcome Chris to the team,” said Joshua Foer, chairman of the board and co-founder of Atlas Obscura. “He brings a wealth of experience as a technological innovator, and a global perspective that aligns with Atlas Obscura’s growing international ambitions.”

 

Fabian co-founded and co-leads Giga, a joint initiative of UNICEF and ITU to connect every school in the world to the internet. Since 2023, Giga has used applied machine learning to map 2.5 million schools, structured over $1.7 billion in infrastructure investment, and helped connect more than 20 million children. The initiative is hosted by the Governments of Spain and Switzerland.

 

Previously,Fabian founded UNICEF’s Innovation Unit and created its Venture and Crypto Funds—the first of their kind in the public sector. These funds backed early-stage companies working on drones, data science, machine learning, cryptocurrency, 3D printing, and nanosatellites. The approach combined venture capital and international development, enabling the open-source commercialization of frontier technologies from developing markets.

 

He was named one of TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” in 2013 and one of Wired’s “25 People Changing the World” in 2019. In a personal capacity, he supports startups and deep-tech research in AI and cryptography across every continent except the coldest one.

 

In addition to Fabian, Atlas Obscura’s board of directors includes Foer as well as Atlas Obscura co-founder Dylan Thuras, entrepreneur Sam Wick, accounting leader Shane Caiazzo, venture capital leader John Backus, and the company’s chief executive officer Louise Story.

Atlas Obscura is excited to continue attracting talented journalists and professionals to the company.

 

This week, Atlas Obscura is welcoming two senior editors, and next week, the company will welcome an accountant.

 

“We are on a mission to make Atlas Obscura the best community travel app in the world, lifting up the experiences and voices of people,” said Louise Story, Atlas Obscura’s chief executive officer. “As we continue to pivot to focus on our community, you’ll see continued change and advancement. Welcome Sunshine, Daniel and Joshua.”

 

Sunshine Flint joins as a senior editor. Sunshine has a background in travel and lifestyle with staff roles at Travel + Leisure, AFAR and as travel editor at Bridal Guide. She was on the launch team for BBC Travel—the first vertical for BBC.com. Sunshine has most recently helmed editorial packages for Inc. magazine and led content and data visualization projects at The Washington Post Creative Group. Previously, she was at HP as creative content lead, running the B2C consumer website and print magazine. Her latest trip was to Palasë, Albania, where she enjoyed enjoyed swimming, hiking and a caviar facial.

 

Daniel McDermon also joins as a senior editor. Daniel has worked at numerous journalism organizations, including WNYC public radio and Newsday. He spent ten years as an editor at The New York Times, leading the digital transformation of the Culture desk. His favorite Atlas Obscura-style quirky experience? He once spent a week reporting inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. To avoid the tourist throng, he recommends the Met’s Etruscan collection: “Tucked away on a mezzanine above the Greek and Roman sculpture court, it’s full of incredible stuff and rarely crowded.”

 

Joshua Johnson joins as the company’s accountant. Joshua joins from the Internal Revenue Service, where he was a revenue agent auditing small businesses. Prior to the I.R.S., Joshua worked as an audit associate at Baker Tilly, the advisory, tax, and assurance firm. Joshua noted to us that one of his favorite places on Atlas Obscura is the Sunken Pirate City at Port Royal. “The history and mystery around it are fascinating—it’s wild to think part of an entire city now rests underwater,” he said.

 

 

Travel community Atlas Obscura has been awarded a 2025 James Beard Award for “Gastro Obscura’s Feast,” a celebration of incredible culinary experiences from around the world.

 

The James Beard Media Award for Dining and Travel recognizes “exemplary and comprehensive service journalism that relies on both critical voice and thorough research to bring a variety of dining options into perspective, whether in a single city, a region, or a country.” Feast creators Sam O’Brien, Diana Hubbell and Anne Ewbank were recognized for their work. 

 

This is the second consecutive win for Atlas Obscura. Last year’s win was for the James Beard Media Award for Feature Reporting, which recognizes “excellence for engaging writing and in-depth reporting” in food features. You can read Hubbell’s article, “Saving the Hogs of Ossabaw Island: An eccentric heiress, a daring mission, and the fight for North America’s most unusual pig,” here.

Congratulations to the Atlas Obscura team!

 

This week, Atlas Obscura CEO Louise Story added two new digital executives, as she builds out the company’s team for a new phase of growth.

 

Rebecca Cruz, most recently Director of Strategic Projects & Operations at Hearst Magazines, joins as Chief Administrative Officer.

 

Lauren Johnston, previously the Executive Editor at Yahoo News, joins as interim Executive Editor.

 

“We are setting up to build the best travel community app in existence,” Story said. “Rebecca and Lauren bring years of experience at the nexus of product, content, and community. Watch this space for more job postings soon.”

***

Lauren Johnston has spent two decades leading digital transformation initiatives at top media companies. In her 10 years at Yahoo News, she served first as Head of Breaking News building a 24/7 live coverage desk, and later as Head of Programming leading content strategy, curation, distribution and audience growth across platforms, including Yahoo’s homepage, the award-winning Yahoo News Digest app and the Webby-nominated Yahoo News TikTok, which grew to one million followers within a year of launch.

 

Prior to Yahoo, Lauren led content strategy for the New York Daily News, and co-founded an innovation lab to host early-stage journalism startups in the newsroom. She has also worked as a reporter and editor for Newsday, amNewYork, CBS News and People covering everything from the city’s recovery after 9/11 to cultural pulse points like fashion week, the Westminster, marathon and more.

 

An avid traveler, she notes she has adventured through 30 countries (and counting!) and has run seven marathons, the most far-flung in Havana, Cuba.

 

Rebecca Cruz brings more than a decade of experience that spans product operations, program management, and chief of staff functions. At Hearst Magazines, she worked closely with the Chief Product & Technology Officer to lead roadmap development, strategic planning, and cross-team execution. Prior to that, she held roles at The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones, where she helped implement operational systems that improved transparency and efficiency.

 

Rebecca began her career in the travel industry, program managing luxury group travel experiences for cultural institutions including The New York Times Journeys and Playbill Travel. In that role, she coordinated complex international itineraries, collaborated with editorial and marketing teams, and delivered seamless, high-touch experiences for discerning travelers.

 

Her favorite travel experience can be found in the Atlas: “It’s hard to pick just one, but I still think about Bahia Lapataia the ‘End of the World’—in Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego National Park, which I visited just before heading to Antarctica,” she says. “There’s something grounding about being somewhere so remote; it’s scenic, windswept, and quietly dramatic.