Maria Popova (@brainpicker) Popova trawls the Web for what she calls “interestingness” and posts her finds on her Brain Pickings blog and on Twitter. She is also an MIT Futures of Entertainment Fellow, which sounds like fun. Among her fans: genius author William Gibson, MoMA tastemaker Paola Antonelli, and Twitter’s Karen (@kvox) Wickre.
Mara Schiavocampo (@maracamp) Schiavocampo is the first backpack journalist to break into the big-time network news ranks. She reports, writes, snaps still photos, shoots and edits video—and then files to the various NBC News broadcast and digital platforms.
Tiffany Shlain (@tiffanyshlain) After founding the Webby Awards during the first dotcom boom, Shlain returned to her first love: documentary film. Her projects have tackled everything from reproductive rights, digital-device addiction, and the Barbie doll as emblem of Jewish identity. Her “Declaration of Interdependence,”; a four-minute short with music by Moby, has been translated into 65 languages.
Elizabeth Spiers (@espiers) Founding editor of Gawker, Spiers has worked on at least a half dozen media startups and advises many others. Currently, she oversees the reinvigorated New York Observer. Her long-awaited debut novel: And They All Die in the End.
Amy Webb (@webbmedia) Relentlessly curious, Webb is a journalist by training, and her beat is emerging technologies for media. She shares what she learns with legacy-media clients and also her colleagues (along with Jenny Lee and Amanda Michel, mentioned above, she is a co-founder of Spark Camp). Data: A Love Story, which tells how Webb gamed JDate and met her husband, will be published by Penguin next Valentine’s Day.
Jenna Wortham (@jennydeluxe) An alumna of Wired, Wortham smartly covers the tech-startup scene for The New York Times, thereby turning a spotlight on whatever she finds newsworthy. The industry blog Tecca recently listed her among the 10 most influential women in tech, alongside the likes of Sheryl Sandberg, Marissa Mayer, and Arianna Huffington.
Pretty orthodox list. Nobody who would challenge the thinking of your basic New York Times letter-writer.
#1 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Fri 6 Jul 2012 at 12:39 PM
How did Dana Levy get Comcast to buy her apartment?
#2 Posted by Stephen Guilfoyle, CJR on Fri 6 Jul 2012 at 02:46 PM
Mona Eltahawy --- We proud of you! Freedom!
Egyptian free women
#3 Posted by Egyptian, CJR on Sat 7 Jul 2012 at 07:40 PM
Well, you made 20 women and their families happy and gave them something to post on Facebook.
#4 Posted by Robert Birnbaum, CJR on Mon 9 Jul 2012 at 02:02 PM
This list is super great. Maybe add Twitter handles to the names?
#5 Posted by Amanda, CJR on Mon 9 Jul 2012 at 03:03 PM
Amanda, thanks for a great suggestion! Added.
#6 Posted by Kira Goldenberg, CJR on Tue 10 Jul 2012 at 10:06 PM
Great list! Could have also included Garance Franke Ruta at The Atlantic.
#7 Posted by Sam Weston, CJR on Wed 11 Jul 2012 at 01:00 PM
I would add Amy Gahran of OaklandLocal.com, poynter.com and elsewhere. This does seem like a fairly East Coast-centric list.
#8 Posted by Barbara Selvin, CJR on Wed 11 Jul 2012 at 03:47 PM
This list apparently was confined to women you can watch. NPR has incredible women journalists who are changing what you can HEAR. Margaret Low Smith, the senior vice president for news, oversees hundreds of journalists fanned out all over the world.
#9 Posted by Marilyn Geewax, CJR on Fri 13 Jul 2012 at 12:41 PM
Lists are always hard, but I would have found a place for Sara Ganim of the Patriot-News in Harrisburg. Not long out of college, she owned the Sandusky story and won a Pulitzer prize.
#10 Posted by Jim Memmott, CJR on Wed 18 Jul 2012 at 06:16 PM