• editorial director | websites, brands & social channels

Throughout my career, I've developed and launched nearly a dozen editorial websites/brands, from NYToday for NYTimes.com in 1999 to The Ticket for The Seattle Times in 2022. Notable successes between include Movieline (Penske Media) and NewNowNext (MTV Networks), along with lesser-known triumphs like Gridskipper (Gawker) and PNW.AI (Allen Institute for AI). These experiences taught me valuable lessons in site planning, targeting the right demographics, designing for maximum impact, and the importance of hiring exceptional talent to make it work.

 
 

The Ticket — The Seattle Times Company & ST Content Studio

Summary:
Created The Ticket, a TikTok-forward, free entertainment site, to attract Gen Z audience and advertisers to the Seattle Times. I overcame initial resistance from the publisher, editorial and marketing departments, launched it in less than 6 months, and is a success now after 2 years.
Notable Achievements:

  • Conceptualized and implemented The Ticket, an independent and free entertainment platform targeting Gen Z.

  • Overcame skepticism and secured approval from the paper's leadership.

  • Successfully attracted both audience and advertisers, now serves as a model for similar strategies in the industry.

  • Exceptional talent hired to support the project: Editor Chase Burns (formerly editor of The Stranger), Hoa Hong

PNW.AI site from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence

PNW.AI — Paul Allen Institute for AI & ST Content Studio

Summary:
Created PNW.AI, a free editorial site focusing on the notable AI movers and shakers in the PNW. site for the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2). Project was brought to me at the ST Content Studio by the then head of AI2, Oren Etzioni. He left in late 2022 and the site was unfortunately shut down. But the model of creating and staffing editorial sites for nonprofits and the revenue we brought in helped make me Leader of the Year in 2021 at the Seattle Times Company.
Notable Achievements:

  • Created new model for editorial sites for nonprofits for my ST Content Studio.

  • Launched the site within 6 weeks of signing contract with Paul Allen Institute.

  • Successfully brought in desired PNW influencer audience with pieces written by contributors from Wired, The Atlantic, WSJ and more.

  • Exceptional talent hired to support the project: Editor Heidi Mitchell (WSJ) and Editor Brian Merchant (LAT, Vice)

NewNowNext — MTV Networks

Summary:
When I arrived at Logo from Movieline, I had seven sites with resourced very stretched across them all, I shuttered two of them and focused my energy on blowing out NewNowNext, a tiny blog of ours getting less than 5k monthly views into the marquee site for the new gay-jacent direction I wanted us to go. I hired some incredible people and within one year we were the fastest growing site at Viacom and by year two we were winning awards and the #3 site in all of MTV Networks.
Notable Achievements:

  • the fastest growing site in the MTV Networks with 675% YOY UU growth from 2012 to 2013 ending with 1.3M UU.

  • In FY 2012 my sites brought in 105% of our revenue plan. For FY 2013 we reached our $7M revenue plan–which was 40% of the total revenue for the entire Logo channel.

  • Established two new convergent events: NewNowNext’s Hot 100, and the NewNowNext Fashion Honors.

  • Acquired several narrative web series including Eastsiders, which got over 650k streams and is now on Netflix.

  • Exceptional talent hired to support the project: Editor Chris Spargo, Contributor/drag artist Willam Belli

Movieline — Penske Media

Summary:
The most rewarding jobs are the ones you make yourself. This was one of my best jobs because I started it from nothing. I suggested bringing back Movieline, a bold and outspoken magazine about the film industry that I loved from the 90s, to Jay Penske. I developed my initial business plan entirely from scratch, outlining the strategy, staff, and long-term revenue forecast. We created an excellent website and I had a great experience. At its peak with Kyle Buchanan, Stephanie Zacharek, Elvis Mitchell, Jen Yamato, Julie Miller and the rest of the gang, this website was quite simply the best movie site anywhere.
Notable Achievements:

  • Designed, staffed and launched Movieline from scratch, poaching writing staff from Gawker’s Defamer.com.

  • In the first two years we hit 1M UU (ComScore 2011), and won praise for the site’s clever reporting from New York magazine, NYT, Deadline Hollywood and IMDb.

  • In 2011 we made our $3.5M sales goal.

  • Co-Created Deadline Editions with Nikki Finke – a stand-alone print publication covering the Oscars season which combined content from both Movieline & Deadline.

  • Exceptional talent hired to support the project: Critics Elvis Mitchell & Stephanie Zacharek, Editors Kyle Buchanan.