Grid's Laura McGann Aims to Reimagine Reporting

When Grid launched in January under the editorial vision of Laura McGann, the publisher sought to solve one of the most fundamental questions of modern journalism—how to best tell a story—by approaching it from a different perspective. For McGann, who had wrestled with complex narratives for years while running newsrooms at Vox and Politico, the most effective reporting often called attention to the structural factors that animate an issue. So, at Grid, where she serves as executive editor, McGann—Adweek's Media Editor of the Year—has oriented the entire organization around that thesis. “The biggest missed opportunity in my career is how long it took me to see that the thing I really value could be the center of my work,” McGann said. “It took me a decade to realize that what I do best could be its own approach to journalism.” The news outlet takes an intersectional angle to its coverage, making evident the various influences shaping a story through a mix of visual cues, such as its color-coded backsplashes, which conclude its stories. Its signature product, an article format called 360, best embodies this ethos. In one recent package, the publisher examined the issue of student loan debt, analyzing it through the lenses of economics, policy, law and race. The story, peppered with data visualizations and cordoned into distinct sections, reveals how the same issue can appear differently based on how you engage with it. McGann has also baked this intersectional approach into the newsroom itself, encouraging reporters to collaborate by celebrating multi-byline stories. The student debt 360, for example, featured five different authors. While the degree to which Grid has woven these concepts into its fabric is rare, the practices themselves are commonplace in mature newsrooms. In fact, the inspiration for the core tenets of Grid came from moments of heightened collaboration that McGann had witnessed throughout her career. When breaking critical news, for instance, newsrooms would often abandon their traditional silos and encourage reporters to tackle stories together. Once the story had been written, however, everyone would return to their departments, shelving the practice they had turned to when the stakes were at their highest. McGann grew fixated on this irony, and she wondered whether a newsroom built for constant collaboration could sustain that kind of camaraderie on an ongoing basis. “It occurred to me that this thing that we do sometimes could be something we do all the time, but it would require big changes in both the structure and culture of the newsroom,” McGann said. “There would need to be buy-in from the staff, but if you could get that, you could produce work that speaks to the way the world actually works.” The challenges of an original concept Although compelling, the idea presented a number of challenges for McGann as she worked to launch the publication. To produce a novel kind of reporting, she needed to build a novel kind of reporting process, one in which journalists work collaboratively by design. And to do that, she would need journalists who shared her enthusiasm for the Grid concept and were willing to take a risk on an experimental vision. The multifaceted nature of the stories also meant Grid would produce fewer reported pieces than its competitors, a disadvantage in a media ecosystem that rewards a combination of quality and quantity over either in isolation. These constraints made the recruiting process a challenge. Nonetheless, her intriguing pitch, combined with $10 million in seed capital, helped entice a team of early converts, enabling the veteran reporter to build out a newsroom of her own for the first time. Now, nearly a year later, and with a clear proof of concept in tow, Grid has found hiring far easier: The team has grown to 30 editorial staff members, and its approach has allowed the publisher to communicate complex news stories with an unparalleled fluency. For example, Grid has drawn praise for its coverage of the Canadian trucker protests, as its reporting led the U.S. Oversight Committee to prompt Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to intervene in the crisis. Its unique approach has also proven well suited for making sense of sprawling stories and subject matters whose scope overwhelms traditional formats. In its first year, Grid has found particular traction covering the war in Ukraine, health policy and misinformation, McGann said, though she declined to share specific numbers. Encouraging early results While the structure of Grid has proven to produce rich reporting, it remains an open question whether the approach will resonate with readers. After all, an insistence on depth runs counter to the prevailing arc of the internet, which bends toward bite-sized. As a result, media pundits and the industry writ large have paid close attention to the publisher, as its success would signal the viability of an approach that eschews the superficial for the substantive. In its first nine months, the early results are encouraging. Grid has seen traction in its signature daily newsletter, which has 120,000 free subscribers, according to the publisher. In response to demand, it has launched a second newsletter to be focused on health and policy. The publisher declined to provide any specific numbers around growth. The expansion of its newsletter suite tracks with the three-year plan McGann envisioned at the outset of Grid: Build an audience and establish the Grid brand in the first year; expand into new, ad-supported products in the second; spin off a consultancy and offer the Grid approach for hire in the third. As part of its expansion into new mediums, McGann has teamed up with editor at large Matthew Yglesias to launch Bad Takes, a podcast in which the hosts apply journalistic rigor to unpack sensitive topics, such as its first episode, titled "Someone Tell Pro-abortion Activists That Americans Like Cops." The podcast launched in September and reflects how flexibly the Grid brand can contort into new products. The publisher, both as a business and a journalist case study, represents a culmination of everything McGann has learned throughout her career. The ambitious venture suggests that there are not only unexplored ways of presenting the news, but also novel ways of collecting and making sense of it. Regardless of its success, Grid serves as a reminder of just how much room for experimentation remains in journalism, and that the fixed ideas that govern the industry are often far more flexible than they appear. “Grid offers a type of coverage that pulls together an unfolding story in an uncommon way,” McGann said. “I see it as an outgrowth of my own career, moving from a highly verticalized process to an increasingly collaborative one.” Check out the rest of the 2022 Hot List here.

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Laura McGann Has Reimagined Reporting Using an Intersectional, Structurally-Focused Approach

The executive editor has taken a novel approach to news—but will it work?

Mark Stenberg

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Mark Stenberg