Meet the MWN Team

Margaret (Maggie) Samways is Metro International’s Global Editor in Chief and Executive Vice President, responsible for editorial globally, and for Metro World News. She joined Metro in 2003 in the Boston office as a page editor and in her time there watched far too many Boston Red Sox baseball games, endured too many snow deadlines and ate too many chicken parmesan sandwiches. When Metro launched in New York, she leapt at the opportunity to ditch those Sox in favor of finer journalistic and culinary challenges. She ran the combined Metro US (Boston, Philadelphia and New York) newsroom from 44 Wall Street, and in 2008, moved to London to run Metro World News.

Prior to moving to London, she worked for the New York Daily News, and her reporting has appeared in major US newspapers, Time Out New York magazine, and Information Age magazine. Prior to pursuing her ambitions with the written word, Maggie worked as a garden designer to the rich and famous (well, mostly just rich) on Martha’s Vineyard Island, Massachusetts. 

Aleksander Korab is content director and responsible for managing the news sections of Metro World News. Originally from Poland, he started his 12-year romance with Metro during the launch of the first free daily in Warsaw.

After working at Metropol as newseditor, he was promoted to the rank of Editor in Chief,  the youngest editor of national newspaper in the history of Polish media. He also worked as Editor in Chief of Metro Czech Republic. After joining Metro World News, he travelled among Metro operations and was involved in projects in at least 13 countries, including coordinating the launch of Metro Moscow and and Diario El Gráfico in Chile.

Managing the news sections of Metro World News includes high profile interviews, columns, focus stories, infographics and also special Metro editions.

Alek never passes up the chance to talk about new editorial projects or football and reported from Euro 2012 and World Cup 2010 for Metro newspapers and was also Editor in Chief of Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010 magazines — over 5 million copies were printed in 12 countries. His other hobbies are actually too boring to mention.

Michael Freidson is the Content Director for Lifestyle at Metro World News, coordinating coverage of Hollywood, health, fitness, style, travel, motor and trends.

While here, he has interviewed guest editors Lady Gaga and Richard Branson, and shared a hotel room with Jon Hamm (dream job). His lifestyle team crafts packages about everything from “The Avengers” to yoga cures.

Until recently, Freidson was Editor-in-Chief of Time Out New York, the city’s premier arts and culture magazine and website. With his team, he helped increase sales and web traffic, launched new sections and increased the company’s public profile, scoring a piece in the New York Times, a spot on 30 Rock and international attention for an infamous Sex and the City cover. He also made Omar from The Wire cry.

Time Out was nominated for three ASMEs, losing to Foreign Affairs. As if wars are more important than singles events.

Previously, Freidson has written and edited for Yahoo! News, TV Guide, Details and Us Weekly. To read his work, see him on TV and join the many gay fans he has in Brazil (sometimes, his shirts are too tight?), head to michaelfreidson.com.

A little bit about Kenya:
She’s an American living in London, where she works as the style director for Metro. She still pinches herself every time she takes the Eurostar to Paris. She’s a former dancer who often finds heels more comfortable to walk in than flats. And thinks that crystals, a belt, or a smidgen of leopard print can help any outfit

She took a lot of costume design courses in undergrad, but only remembers how to change the buttons on her coats. But that doesn’t stop her from trying the odd DIY project now and then (ask her how the dip-dyed trousers went.)

She contributes regularly to Vogue.it but her Italian is a work-in-progress. She’s a fashion editor who actually likes to eat, which she does all the time thanks to her super hot, arty husband who is a superb cook. She’s contributed articles to American and British Vogue, InStyle, Marie Claire, National Geographic Adventure, the Evening Standard and Essence magazine among others.

She was once so annoyed about homogeneity on the runways that she wrote a piece about it that won her a feature writing award from the New York Association of Black Journalists. She’s secretly quite bookish, and is studying towards a Masters in Literature and the Arts at Oxford.

She’s a new mom, a fact she still can’t believe, and adores her little baby boy.

Mia Korab has over 10 years of experience in art direction, illustration and graphic design. As senior designer at Metro International, she specializes in conceiving of infog-raphics, as well as illustrating facts and figures in an imaginative and engaging way. Mia started her Metro career in Prague.

Since 2003, Katrina has had Metro newsprint on her hands, clothes — and yes, sometimes face. Designer to the world, Katrina leads the redesign projects, traveling to many of our markets in Europe and the Americas customizing the Metro brand to fit each city’s personality and work with Metro’s local newsrooms to implement best practices. Katrina’s other responsibilities include designing our global guest editor editions (print and iPad) for the likes of Lady Gaga, Karl Lagerfeld and Sir Richard Branson, special topic issues (Sex, Kids, AIDS, Green, Cool, Happy, Fashion Weeks … Did she mention Sex?) that are translated and published worldwide. She’s currently working on our new cutting-edge look for the future.

When she’s not fast and furious as a Creative Suite Ninja you can find Katrina practicing yoga or dragging her husband to the ballet. Her hobbies include singing, dancing, baking and fonts.  Do you have a favorite font? Katrina likes the serif fonts because they have hats, and she likes to accessorize

Elisabeth Braw is Senior Reporter at Metro International. As a child she always wanted to become a spy, but later discovered that journalism is even more fascinating. Elisabeth conducts Metro’s exclusive interviews with political leaders and other VIPs, among then UN Secretary-General Ban, now-IMF chief Christine Lagarde, EU Commission President Barroso and Tony Blair. When she interviewed Markus Wolf, East Germany’s legendary spy chief (and the model for John le Carrè’s Karla), the 15 minutes he’d promised her turned into two hours and lots of intriguing information about the Soviet Union, espionage and the CIA.

Before joining Metro, Elisabeth was a correspondent in Washington and San Francisco for Swedish newspapers. In San Francisco, she covered Silicon Valley; when interviewing successful technology entrepreneurs she often felt like a grandmother.

Elisabeth earned an MA in Political Science and German Literature in Germany. She lives in London with her husband, son and daughter.

Anthony Johnston is News sub-editor for Metro World News. He is responsible for editing and proofing daily news items, features and info-graphics, as well as generating stories on the best news images from around the world.

Before joining Metro World News in September 2010, Anthony worked in Moscow as an editor, translator and reporter for Russian news agency RIA Novosti, including editing and translating the official website for the Russian Prime Minister.

Anthony, who hails from Dublin, completed postgraduate studies in journalism at City University London. His academic background also includes a MPhil in Russian Studies at University of Cambridge and a BA in European Studies at Trinity College Dublin.

Aside for being a stickler for language and grammar in news copy, Anthony enjoys playing & following sport (especially rugby and basketball), going to art exhibitions and reading books on history and philosophy.

Kieron is a reporter for Metro World News, often covering offbeat territory with a dash of sport and politics thrown in. Before joining Metro he spent two years in the Middle East running a Palestinian magazine and freelancing for The Guardian, Al Jazeera English, New Statesman, Tribune, Vice and a bunch of others. He has also had spells working for The Week and satirical website Don’t Panic where he would break into politicians’ homes and infiltrate the British National Party.

Out of hours Kieron gorges on sport (watching and playing), literature and sea creatures. His greatest unfilfilled passion is to witness a duel between a giant squid and a whale.

Romina edits MWN’s Be page, covering health and fitness trends — which she tries herself sometimes. Just look at those guns.

Fluent in French, Spanish and English, she also has a smooth tongue with celebrities, doing widely-run Q+As with Jamie Oliver, Kelly Osbourne and Carly Rae Jepsen (getting the latter to kiss herself on video). All three stories were promoted by the stars themselves on social media, reaching millions. 

Romina spent her summers daydreaming on the beach in Tunisia, and later developed a love of words during English literature class. Her family used to complain that she asked too many questions, as a child. They thought she would enter the police force, not a newsroom. Read her rigorous interviews and you’ll see why. 

Ned Ehrbar is the Los Angeles-based Hollywood correspondent for Metro World News, covering film, television and celebrity interviews. His work is perhaps the most widely run of our MWN content, because every country wants the latest from Hollywood.

As a writer and editor, his work has appeared in numerous publications, including Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, VIBE, Esquire, Variety, OUT and ABCNews.com. At Metro, he has covered everything from the Writers’ Strike to Wondercon, with hundreds of one-on-ones in between.

Ehrbar has only asked for one autograph during an interview, and it was Betty White’s.

Richard is on the style desk for Metro International newspapers. He is responsible for covering men’s style and any other fashion-related features.

Richard’s previously worked with stylists for magazines such as Interview, L’Uomo Vogue and Arena magazine and he’s also contributed to publications such as Seventh Man.

Aside from writing, he enjoys fashion parties, quirky movies, galleries, theatre and the odd game of tennis. Most often found wearing an ascot.