Breaking Defense is pleased to announce several key additions to its editorial staff, in an exciting and notable development that further solidifies the growth and leadership of Breaking Defense in the defense media market.
Valerie Insinna will be joining Breaking Defense as our Senior Reporter, Air Warfare and OSD. In this role, Valerie will have day to day responsibilities for covering the US Air Force, while serving as point person for major Pentagon policy and strategy developments. Valerie comes to Breaking Defense with extensive national security reporting expertise, having served as the air warfare beat reporter for Defense News for the last five years. During that time her work was recognized by numerous awards, including the prestigious National Press Club Michael A. Dornheim Award for defense journalism. She previously worked at Defense Daily, National Defense Magazine, and spent two years as the Washington correspondent for the Tokyo Chunichi Shimbun. A graduate of the renowned University of Missouri-Columbia journalism program, Valerie will start her new position at Breaking Defense on Oct. 4.
Andrew Eversden will be a new reporter for Breaking Defense, covering the Army and land warfare beat. Andrew previously worked as a staff reporter for C4ISRNET, covering the critical and transformational role networks play in contemporary defense. He also covered defense cybersecurity issues for Federal Times. Prior to that, Andrew served his internship at CBS News with its Capitol Hill team, was a Washington DC reporting fellow for the Texas Tribune and Washington Correspondent for the Durango Herald newspaper. Andrew is an alumnus of American University.
In a related development, Sydney Freedberg, Deputy Editor of Breaking Defense, has been elevated to a role as Senior Columnist, allowing Sydney to range his coverage and intellect across all military services and defense technologies. Sydney will work closely with staff to augment and enhance coverage across beats, including on key Army issues for which he is rightly known as an expert.
In another strategic move for Breaking Defense, Lee Ferran has joined the team as Managing Editor, a new role reporting to Editor-in-Chief Aaron Mehta. Lee brings significant journalistic experience to the role, working at ABC News for over nine years as a national security reporter, investigative reporter and editor of their enterprise investigations unit. Over his career Lee has covered US military budgets and spending,
cybersecurity vulnerabilities and controversial counter-terrorism programs. He’s the recipient of two News Emmy Awards. In his new role as Managing Editor at Breaking Defense, Lee will be responsible for editing coverage, organizing, scheduling and optimizing editorial operations, and developing our content platforms. Lee brings particular expertise and interest in media technology. A native of Georgia, Lee is a graduate of Wake Forest University.
These three additions, combined with staff developments earlier this year, means the Breaking Defense editorial team has doubled in size since the start of 2021, a reflection of the impressive growth of the brand. And Breaking Defense continues to expand its team of reporters from around the globe, with greater international coverage to come in the next year.
“Thanks to the hard work put in by founding editor Colin Clark, Sydney and the team, Breaking Defense had a wonderful base of talent when I joined this summer,” said Aaron Mehta, Editor-in-Chief of Breaking Defense. “I’m thrilled we’re able to keep growing the staff with our new additions, who all bring something different to the table. Having worked with Val and Andrew previously and having worked with Lee for a few weeks now — along with Theresa, Brad, Justin, Sydney and Colin, who will soon become our Asia Bureau Chief — I can’t imagine a better team to grow Breaking Defense into the future.”
“We’re excited to be growing our staff with journalists of such talent, quality and integrity,” said David Smith, Publisher and Managing Director of Breaking Defense. “The great additions of Val, Lee and Andrew to our editorial team are testament to the extraordinary growth Breaking Defense has achieved in the last years. Building upon an outstanding foundation, Aaron has assembled an all-star team of defense journalists, a mix of highly experienced reporters of immense reputation along with the next generation of talented and impressive rising stars. The breadth and quality of the Breaking Defense editorial team and its coverage is unsurpassed. I look forward to the continuing expansion, growth and leadership of Breaking Defense in this market.”
