MarylandReporter.com has hired a new associate editor and two contributing editors who bring years of award-winning journalism experience to the news website.
Associate editor Megan Poinski has six years of experience covering state-level government, and is a nationally recognized investigative reporter. She is also working toward her master’s degree in information management at the University of Maryland College Park.
Poinski started with MarylandReporter.com July 1.
“The associate editor’s job description asked for a lot, “ said Editor and Publisher Len Lazarick. “Extensive journalism experience, knowledge of state government, an ability to edit, technical expertise in web publishing and multimedia, and familiarity with social networking.”
“Megan brought all those things to the table, and then some,” Lazarick said. “We’re lucky to have her.”
“Technology-based ventures like MarylandReporter.com are the future of the news business,” Poinski said. “I am excited to be working with a news website that has a reputation for quality journalism, and I look forward to expanding my knowledge and skills.”
Poinski has almost a decade of experience in reporting and editing. After graduating from The George Washington University in D.C. with her bachelor’s degree in journalism, she spent two years as a beat reporter at the Ashtabula Star Beacon in Ohio.
In 2003, she began a six-year stint at The Virgin Islands Daily News, based on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas. During her years there, she covered the Virgin Islands territorial government, the federal government’s interactions with the territorial government, and the Fifth Virgin Islands Constitutional Convention.
Megan also participated in several investigative projects, including one exposing government contracting fraud. This investigative project turned into a federal investigation, which ended in six conspirators —four former high ranking government officials — being convicted of corruption charges and sentenced to prison.
She has received several reporting awards throughout her career, most of them from Capitolbeat, the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors. She also was the finalist for both the Scripps Howard Foundation’s Ursula and Gilbert Farfel Prize in Investigative Reporting, and the Associated Press Managing Editors Award for Public Service in 2005.
MarylandReporter.com’s two new contributing editors have already been contributing to the news website.
Barbara Pash is the former associate editor of the Baltimore Jewish Times, where she covered state and local politics, from the governor’s office and state agencies to Baltimore City and County elected officials and departments.
Pash set up and managed an Annapolis news bureau during the General Assembly sessions. She now writes for several publications and websites on topics as diverse as business, health and the environment. She has won over three dozen awards from professional organizations, including the Maryland chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Maryland-Delaware-D.C Press Association (MDDC), which gave her a 2008 award for state government coverage and a 2007 MDDC Best-In-Show award in the religion category.
Contributing Editor Cynthia Prairie prepares the daily State Roundup of news about government and politics in Maryland. Cynthia has been a newspaper editor for more than 25 years. She has worked for the Raleigh (N.C.) Times, The Baltimore News American, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Prince George’s Journal and Baltimore County newspapers in the Patuxent Publishing chain, including overseeing The Jeffersonian when it was a two-day a week business publication.
Prairie has won numerous state awards, including the Maryland State Bar Association’s Gavel Award.
Nice story