Navigating the Newsroom
How the editor-in-chief of Orlando’s major newspaper has led local journalism and shaped the city’s narrative.
When Laura Stevens ’04 moved to New York City barely a year ago, the pace didn’t faze her. Stevens had kept in step with the perpetually moving world of technology as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and as an editor for The Washington Post before being named deputy technology editor for The New York Times. The pursuit began after she graduated from UCF in 2004 and has taken her to stops in Arkansas, Germany, Atlanta and — for seven years prior to moving to New York — the heartbeat of technology: Silicon Valley.
“This kind of news never stops,” says Stevens, a journalism alum. Every day, her reporting teams dig into rumors about tech before they become news — the on-again, off-again ban of TikTok, for example. “We have a huge responsibility to know what’s happening behind the scenes because when technology changes, it affects all of us.”
That’s why she keeps her eyes and ears on leads about social platforms, streaming services, e-commerce, bots, electric vehicles and artificial intelligence (AI). For a few minutes, she pauses long enough to tell us about the most significant tech news she sees on the horizon, and the path from UCF to NYC she’ll never forget.
“We have a huge responsibility to know what’s happening behind the scenes because when technology changes, it affects all of us.”
On Wanting to Be a Meteorologist
Before going to UCF, I thought a career in meteorology would be interesting. Then I found out about the Calculus IIIrequirement. Around that time, I heard a reporter from The Wall Street Journal at a conference say, “Business reporting is the most challenging type of journalism because you have to take something dry and make it interesting.” I’ve always liked challenges, so that sounded attractive. The challenges still motivate me.
On How She Created a Minor in Tourism Journalism at UCF
Journalism majors were allowed to develop their own specialties. Being in Orlando, I thought the business side of hospitality would make sense as a minor. When I graduated, we were coming out of the dotcom bust and it looked like new technology was going to change our lives. That’s where my career path — and my curiosity — led me.
On the Biggest Tech Questions That Loom Over Everyone
We’re reporters and editors, but we’re also consumers, so we have the same concerns about technology as everyone else. The big ones are, “How is my personal information being used?” and “Will AI kill us?” I’ve posed various forms of the AI question to tech leaders and their range of perspectives, good and bad, is fascinating. At the end of the day, let’s just say I’m hopeful about the future. That said, it’s critical that we keep asking about AI. Will it take jobs? How do you know when to trust it? What about the proliferation of deep fakes? To me, it’s an exciting challenge to find the truth.
On the Importance of Reporters on the Tech Beat
We have journalists in time zones around the world covering specific topics of interest — personal technology, education and tech, X (formerly known as Twitter) and AI. When I lived on the West Coast, I’d be up at 5 a.m. to get a jump on whatever was happening on the East Coast and across the Atlantic. Now that I’m in New York, there’s still no such thing as a typical day. Anything can happen at any hour of the day or night. That’s what drives us as reporters: being curious and never assuming there’s such a thing as the status quo.
On Her Personal Investigation of Amazon in its Early Days
I helped cover Amazon during the company’s earliest ambitions to compete with UPS and FedEx as a delivery service. As part of my reporting, I’d test Amazon’s product offerings. One time, out of curiosity, I ordered a Dead Sea salt mask. When it arrived, I looked at the ingredients and saw it was made with corn starch, which made me look closer at some of the quality issues at Amazon, including the possibility of counterfeit products and other deeper investigative targets. Amazon has greatly improved its quality control methods since then.
On the Most Important People She’s Covered
We talk with senior executives at the world’s biggest tech companies — Jeff Bezos among them. But the people who leave the biggest impression are not among the rich and famous. My first job out of college was with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, where I investigated the fallout from shale fracking on smaller communities. People invited me into their homes where I saw the effects on everyday lives, including faucets catching on fire. The story became a voice for those people. I’ve never forgotten.
On Where Technology Will Take Us Next
We can plan stories, but we can’t predict them. In January 2020 we thought the biggest story of the year would be tech regulation — and two months later the world shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We didn’t see it coming when Elon Musk announced his plan to buy Twitter. So at the moment we’re following. what happens next with TikTok and how AI will impact our everyday lives. The only prediction I can make is that more surprises in technology are coming and we’ll be right there as they come.