I help journalists — and the organizations that support their work — thrive in a changing digital landscape. My posts here are now few and far between, but I used to muse on journalism, the internet and digital culture on this site.
Interests
Besides the topics above, here are some things I’m interested in and have occasionally written about:
- Business models for journalism in the digital (and AI) age
- Digital product management in the news industry
- Digital storytelling, data visualization, cartography and typography (I made a font!)
- Social effects of information technology, globalization and urbanization
- Languages, especially German, French, Spanish and Dutch (of which I speak German and feebly attempt to speak the other three)
- New Orleans, my hometown and one of my favorite places in the world
Affiliations
Opinions expressed here are my own and not those of any of the organizations and institutions I’m connected with. In the interest of transparency, here’s the list of my current and former affiliations:
- Employer: Until July 2025, I was VP of product at The Baltimore Banner. I was previously senior director for content capabilities at Gannett, now known as USA TODAY Co. Before that, I was executive director for digital strategy and a managing editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, and I held senior editorial and product roles at The Seattle Times and the Los Angeles Times. Further details on my LinkedIn profile.
- Consulting: Clients have included The Texas Tribune, the News Product Alliance, the American Press Institute, the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the Los Angeles Times and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
- Teaching and coaching: I have coached in four Table Stakes organizational transformation programs (run by the American Press Institute, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Gannett/McClatchy) and have served as a mentor in the News Product Alliance’s Mentor Network. I was a visiting professor at the University of British Columbia‘s Graduate School of Journalism and an adjunct instructor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. I taught a course and several webinars for the Poynter Institute‘s NewsU on topics in digital journalism including SEO and writing for the web.
- Fellowships: I was a 2026 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, a 2013 fellow in the Sulzberger Leadership Program at Columbia University (now known as the Media Transformation Challenge), and a 2009 Arthur F. Burns fellow at Spiegel Online in Berlin.
- Memberships: As a member of the founding steering committee of the News Product Alliance, I helped launch a new professional organization dedicated to the advancement of product thinking in the news industry. I am a member of the Online News Association, for which I have helped organize events in Philadelphia, Seattle, Los Angeles and Italy. I have served on the editorial board of the European Journalism Centre‘s Data Driven Journalism initiative, and as a member of the advisory board for the Integrated Student Media Center at Temple University‘s Klein College of Media and Communication.
Speaking
I’ve had the privilege of speaking about topics I’m passionate about at gatherings on three continents over the years. Here’s a partial list:
- Upcoming:
- News Product Alliance Summit (October 2026): The Demand Audit: Are You Building for Who’s Actually Paying?
- International Symposium for Online Journalism (September 2026): How might we build future-ready news organizations?
- Past:
- SRCCON (2026): Can local news work as a consumer product?
- State of Digital Publishing PubTech [virtual] (2025): Designing the Future Publishing Stack
- NPA Summit [virtual] (2024): Healthy product indicators
- Online News Association (2024): What are the pillars of healthy product operations in local news?
- NPA Forum (2024): From product supported to product led: Indicators of healthy product operations
- SRCCON (2023): My boss thinks AI is cool. What do I do now?
- ONA (2022): Automating Local News: How We Built it, What We Learned
- News Leaders Association [virtual] (2021): Product thinking 101
- World Forum Disrupt [virtual] (2020): Making our journalism work harder for our audiences
- WordCamp for Publishers, Chicago (2018): Reader revenue and the less open web
- Digital Media Europe, Copenhagen (2018): Digital transformation in local news
- AmericaEast Media Business and Technology Conference, Hershey, Pa. (2017): Panel on product management in news organizations
- APME-ASNE News Leadership conference, Philadelphia (2016): Keynote interview with Apple’s Eddy Cue
- Pennsylvania Press Conference, Harrisburg, Pa. (2016): Moderated a panel entitled “News Nerdery for Audience Engagement“
- BarCamp NewsInnovation, Philadelphia (2015): Spoke about Philly.com’s upcoming redesign project
- AAJA N3con, Hong Kong (2013): Panel on data journalism
- Digital Editors Network [virtual] (2013): Panel on responsive web design
- Edward R. Murrow symposium, Washington State University, Pullman, Wash. (2011): Spoke about change in legacy news organizations
- Data Journalism Meetup, Berlin (2010): Show-and-tell of L.A. Times Data Desk projects
- Data Driven Journalism, Amsterdam (2010): Storytelling with Data
- University of British Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Vancouver (2010): Led a public seminar on new tools and techniques for journalists
- BarCamp NewsInnovation, Philadelphia: Discussion on information overload (2009)
- International Journalism Festival, Perugia, Italy (2009): Panel discussion with European editors on networked journalism and the fate of traditional news media + ONA Italy meetup talk on alternative story forms
- Digital Editors Network, Preston, U.K. (2009): “Building the Data Desk at the L.A. Times”
- ACM Siggraph, Los Angeles: Panel discussion on computational journalism (2008)
- BarCamp Los Angeles: “How to teach old media new tricks” (2007)