Growing up, I didn’t always feel like I fit into Las Vegas.
It wasn’t until my first year at UNLV that I realized if I wanted community, I had to go looking for it — to seek out the people and places that reflected my own interests. What I found was a city teeming with creatives who use their talents and perspective to shape how Las Vegas feels, functions, and grows. That lens continues to guide how I tell stories — with an eye toward culture, place, and the people behind it all.
I began my career as a freelancer, writing for magazines and television. I authored travel and cultural scripts for Outdoor Nevada on Vegas PBS, covering everything from ghost-hunting in Tonopah to Basque cooking traditions in Elko. For David Magazine, I profiled local personalities and shared travel essays from the Pacific Northwest. I also wrote travel guides inspired by my time in Central America and across Nevada.
I joined the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2016, starting on the digital desk, where I covered breaking news, adapted print stories for web audiences, helped shape social media strategy, and produced newsletters. That same year, a new role was created for me on the Features desk, where I focused on digital-first arts and entertainment stories. My videos and stories drew tens of thousands of daily views and helped boost subscription conversions by 14 percent in the early years after the Review-Journal introduced its paywall.
I was later promoted to Arts Reporter, a role I cherished. Here I covered artists, performers, and creatives across Las Vegas — from the rise of a new Las Vegas art museum to how Black artists channeled empathy during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, and how Strip performers brought their craft to local audiences.
In 2020, I became the paper’s Social Media Manager, leading social strategy, directing art and video for online stories, and guiding digital coverage to better serve online readers. I continued to write regularly — covering breaking news, evergreen topics, and enterprise features. Highlights included reporting on the reopening of a landmark restaurant, documenting the resilience of the Las Vegas community during the 2020 lockdown, and a feature on kayaking the Colorado River, which earned a Nevada Press Association award for Feature Writing.
I became Vegas Editor for Eater in 2022, where I led coverage of the city’s ever-evolving dining scene — capturing the intricacies, oddities, and cultural moments in restaurants and bars across the valley. I shaped the site’s editorial voice and output, from breaking news and service guides to longform features and freelance packages. My reporting was rooted in the communities that define Las Vegas, whether through the flagship Eater 38, gonzo dives into the city’s iconic buffets, and a labor story on unpaid PTO at a local restaurant that led to workers receiving compensation after publication.
In December 2024, I stepped into the role of Editor for the Southern California and Southwest region, overseeing editorial strategy across Los Angeles, San Diego, and Phoenix while continuing to serve as a Las Vegas authority. I also led an enterprise package on Nevada, chronicling the century-long history of the Southwest saloon and the state’s enduring relationship with the weird.
I’m always on the lookout for a good story — interesting people using their craft to build community, bewildering trends that shape how we interact with the world, and big, novel spectacles that reshape the Las Vegas landscape in more ways than one.
These days, you can usually find me bar-hopping in the Arts District, racing a deadline at a coffee shop, or chasing the kind of experience that makes me pause and say “what?” — or better yet, “why?”
Say hi.
Janna Karel 