Grist leadership is pleased to announce that it has hired Matthew McKnight as a senior editor, helping to lead the newsroom’s accountability coverage.
McKnight most recently worked at Wired, where he was a features editor, collaborating with staff writers and freelancers on stories at the intersection of technology, culture, and justice. While at Wired, it was his goal to expand what the magazine considered a tech story, editing pieces on Guyana’s carbon bomb, how an Indigenous researcher is using forensic technology to study tragedies at forced boarding schools, and a look at life as a 21st-century trucker, among others. Previously, he worked as a senior editor at The Appeal, and had earlier posts at The Nation and The New Yorker.
McKnight’s own writing about art, literature, and contemporary American life has appeared in The Point, The Baffler, and The Nation. He is based in North Carolina.
“Matthew’s human-focused approach to accountability reporting is deeply aligned with Grist’s own mission,” said executive editor Katherine Bagley. “It is easy to get lost in the superlatives of climate change — the biggest storm, the hottest heat wave — but at the heart of every climate story should be the people and communities being impacted, particularly those facing disproportionate risks. Matthew infuses that lens into every story he edits. We are thrilled to have him joining the team.”
“I’m really honored to be working at Grist. A friend recently remarked to me that it’s a publication that has few illusions about what matters and what doesn’t, and I think that’s spot-on,” McKnight said. “I’m excited to be a part of figuring out what accountability journalism looks and feels like on an issue where every single one of us — to varying degrees, of course — is complicit in the problem.”
