Hello and welcome. Thanks for reading some of my stories.
I’m an enterprise reporter for The Record newspaper and USA Today. The word “enterprise” has several definitions, but among journalists it’s become a term of art to describe a certain type of story. To me, writing a great enterprise story means finding the newest, most important, or the most surprising trends in our society. Then I find the best characters and scenes to help me explain those trends humanely, and with grace.
Some examples?
I experienced the growing hazard of ever-larger ships navigating New York Harbor through the eyes of a tugboat captain, a project supported by the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity’s fellowship in literary journalism. (With big thanks for editing and life advice from Susan Orlean, my writing hero.) As richer places in America began to escape the grip of the pandemic, I traveled to Ogdensburg, a struggling city on the St. Lawrence River in upstate New York, where the health and social impacts of Covid were just coming into view.
The United States invented genetic disease testing. Our nation operates the world’s largest and most sophisticated diagnostics systems in the world. When Covid caused those systems to repeatedly fail, I asked: Why?
Finding the answers took months. The project was supported by a $75,000 grant from the Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship for Editorial Writing. The resulting five-story package is the deepest inquiry ever published into the broken infrastructure of American testing, and why that infrastructure will fail again during the next health emergency.
So, you know. Stuff like that.
In addition to enterprise, I sprinkle in big scoops. My story in USA Today broke the national news that taking apart America’s aging nuclear reactors is a $60-billion industry dominated by a pair of secretive companies with histories of scandal and no prior experience. Before the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, I spent a week in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to find a tiny town torn apart by its response to America’s greatest tragedy.
I led a team of journalists to cover the trial of a serial killer stopped by the sister of his final victim, who risked her life to trap him in a catfishing scheme. My story on the case was optioned by Warner Bros., which is developing it into a feature TV show.
Before focusing on enterprise, I was a columnist. Opinions bore me, especially my own. So unlike most modern columnists – and almost all of social media – my columns are rooted in reporting. (I still get to write columns now and again.) Ornery cranberries. The mythical power of Tetrakaidecahedra. Wrinkle, circus duck of the pandemic. If it has strong characters and the possibility of some fun word play? I’m probably interested.
Before all that, I wrote regularly as a freelancer for The New York Times and TIME, mostly covering the Midwest. (Including my first front-page story for the Times, about Cleveland’s winter surfers.) I’ve been a staff writer for alt weeklies, monthly magazines, and a few web startups including Credit.com, where I covered the intricacies of credit cards and mortgages.
Please click around and read some of my work. Or reach out to me directly:
email: chris@christophermaag.com
Thanks,
Chris