Travel community Atlas Obscura adds to its leadership as it designs for growth across its platforms

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.”

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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.