I am an exceptional leader and experienced digital journalist, at home in pitch meetings and SEO discussions, with writers, videographers, sales people and coders. I enjoy:
- Connecting people to the information and stories that impact their lives positively.
- Building teams that are sustainable and high-performing.
- Creating an environment for brilliant things to happen.
I’ve done this long enough to know that all that involves vision, a sense of joy, and conflict. The skillful mediation of those tensions can make something special.
I was the Senior Director of Digital Editorial Operations for Rodale from 2016 to March 2018, working to help the company’s high-profile brands—Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Prevention, Bicycling, and Runner’s World—reach and empower audiences across the world. I led cross-brands teams dedicated to video, social media, and digital production. Strategy, tactics, putting out fires and holding folks accountable to the mission—yeah, done that.
Before that, I was Senior Managing Editor of MensHealth.com since December 2007, where I was the only common factor on an ever-revolving team that grew audience and revenue 15-fold over eight years. Before that, I served as editorial and operations lead (formal title: Director of Site Operations) for Philly.com, the online home of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.
Over that time, I’ve learned a lot about journalism—both news and service—and the digital world, including a bunch of acronyms: SEO, AMP, P&L, DFP, CMS, CRM, Aff-Comm, E-Comm, etc. Beyond acronyms, I’m an experienced leader who has learned that paying careful attention, investing in your team, staying open, and doggedly sticking with it is usually the best way to accomplish what you’re aiming for in this world. (If you’re interested, here’s my LinkedIn profile. If you’re looking for references, I’m partial to the Facebook comments here when I shared news that I wouldn’t have a role with Hearst.)
I served for three years as an adjunct professor at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, where I taught two 500-level classes: “Writing and Editing for Magazine Web Sites” and “Sports Writing for Multiple Platforms.” I think universities are literally miracles, and I enjoyed teaching—I was Newhouse’s first foray into remote teaching, and I experienced both the magic and the frustrations of teaching from the front of a virtual classroom.
I live near Philadelphia with my wife Virginia. That’s her and my two sons above. Other than sweeping all three games in lunchtime basketball, they are the joys in my life.
I’ve kept a modest blog over the years. It’s all collected here.
Here are some things I have written for publications over the years:
- Two the Hard Way (Asbury Park Press, 1990; this won an AP best-in-state award for sports feature writing)
- Lance Armstrong’s Incredible Comeback (Philadelphia Daily News, 1998)
- Why You Could Be Days Away From a Heart Attack and Not Even Know It (Men’s Health; a long-form feature in the magazine’s December 2015 issue)
- Interview With Jason Isbell About Dads and Sons (Men’s Health)
- Should You Buy Your Next Mattress On the Internet? (Men’s Health)
- Why You Should Give Up Drinking For 30 Days (Men’s Health)
- Why the NFL Should Buy the MLS Right Now (Men’s Health)
- What Makes a Hero? (Men’s Health)
- We Should Move the Super Bowl to Saturday (Tonic)
You can find me on Twitter and Facebook too. Want to talk? You can reach me via email or call me at 484-751-7795.
