Top USA TODAY Science Journalist Dan Vergano Joins NationalGeographic.com as Senior Science Editor and Writer, Continues Year of Major Digital Hires

WASHINGTON (Sept. 5, 2013)-National Geographic announced today that Dan Vergano, formerly senior science reporter at USA TODAY, is joining NationalGeographic.com as a senior editor and writer. Vergano will cover daily science news and the places where science intersects with major news stories.

His move is part of an increasing emphasis on daily content at NationalGeographic.com, which this year has hired new leadership away from npr.org, CNN.com and the Medill School of Journalism as it makes a bigger play in the digital space, growing an existing audience of 1 million unique daily readers. NationalGeographic.com's daily news content has seen strong growth in 2013, after the merger of National Geographic's print and digital editorial operations.

We are committed to robust, relevant and insightful daily news reporting and storytelling on NationalGeographic.com, and are delighted to have Dan Vergano bring his tremendous talent to bear as we increase our daily cadence, said Dan Gilgoff, director of Digital News at National Geographic.

Vergano's position continues a year of significant editorial hires for NationalGeographic.com, including Matt Mansfield, former director of Medill's Washington program, as executive editor, digital content; Keith Jenkins, former senior supervising producer at npr.org, as director of photography for digital; and new directors for digital news, multimedia, and web design.

National Geographic ushered in the year with the launch of the science blog Phenomena, a home for writers Carl Zimmer, Ed Yong, Brian Switek and Virginia Hughes. Collectively, the bloggers have had more than 2.3 million unique visitors and also contribute reported pieces to NationalGeographic.com.

As National Geographic deepens its daily digital storytelling, we are thrilled to welcome Dan Vergano to the team, said Matt Mansfield, executive editor, digital content. Dan will undoubtedly use his considerable expertise to help us in one of our primary goals - making complex science understandable and approachable for millions of readers.

Vergano is currently the senior science reporter at USA TODAY, one of the country's largest-circulation newspapers, where he has written daily and feature news stories for 14 years, as well as writing a weekly science column since 2005. During his tenure there, he led coverage on science, environment and energy topics ranging from the anthrax investigation to space exploration, as well as award-winning coverage of archaeology, climate and the pharmaceutical industry.

Vergano was a 2008 Nieman Fellow for Journalism at Harvard, where he concentrated on the intersection of science and politics. He is an adjunct faculty member at New York University's D.C. campus, and has guest lectured at Harvard, Johns Hopkins University, George Washington University and Yale.

LINK:	http://press.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/05/science-journalist-dan-...
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