Glad you're here! We've got work to do. Sustainable journalism is in trouble — it won't make it into the future without new ideas, innovative strategies and the courage to take risks and follow through. I lead news operations toward growth through a focus on quality, audience signals and building of a culture where new ideas can thrive. Twenty-five years across local and national media make me comfortable backing up small operations and leading strategic efforts across networks of thousands of journalists. Let's work together to shape the formula that takes our craft into the future.
MAY 2022 - Present
• Worked with newsroom on new tactics and beats to deliver the highest audience reach in 2 years. Trained content org on enterprise journalism techniques, leading The Hill to an all-time high in time people spend on the site.
• Implemented new team-based structure across 70-person newsroom to help journalists be more effective and deliver more opportunities for development.
• Fostered data awareness and democratization, training the newsroom to use real-time analytics tools and developing custom dashboards in Looker Studio. Used NLP to surface under- and over-performing topics, working with editors to help them refine reporter beats.
• Led cross-divisional effort with sales and marketing to relaunch newsletter portfolio with improved topics, refined visual appeal, greater advertising potential, stronger insights and 25% higher clickthrough.
FEB. 2016 - May 2022
• Extended strategic vision through audience and consumer analysis across Gannett’s network of 100+ news operations and 4,000+ journalists. Worked with journalists across the country to improve the quality of their work, processes and audience strategy.
• Created an entirely new field of study in Gannett, culminating in the creation of a 20-person nationally distributed content strategy analysis unit designed to increase effectiveness and journalistic quality across the national network. Developed training of the team’s skills in data science, trend analysis and lateral management.
• Helped Gannett achieve a milestone of 1.5 million digital subscribers and reach of 140 million people per month through unique journalism, sophisticated analysis and unique content offerings.
• Led content strategy team through multiple content and reporter effectiveness campaigns. One, centered around doing less work with higher quality and value, led to a 40% drop in low-performing content while increasing article readership 5%, drastically improving the quality of local content.
• Led the introduction of premium, subscriber-only journalism from a business and strategic quality perspective. Premium journalism now represents Gannett's largest single consumer revenue strategy, making up a third of consumer revenue.
• Invited to share growth concepts at global audiences from the United States to Europe for the International News Media Association, WorldForum Disrupt, Mather Economics and others.
JAN. 2014 - JAN. 2016
• Pioneered new community journalism efforts, building models that would later serve as national templates. Laterally led a corporate team to develop next-generation practices. Tested new roles to deepen engagement.
• Managed more than 75 journalists across two states and three daily news operations.
• Demonstrated 54 percent YOY growth in paid digital subscriptions while achieving 23 percent digital audience growth.
• Co-developed PressBox, a new democratized data software tool for reporter audience awareness.
DEC. 2011 - JAN. 2014
• Named Gannett’s Innovator of the Year for transforming the Coloradoan into one of the best community outlets in the nation. Received back-to-back accolades as Innovator of the Year in 2012 and 2013 from Colorado Press Association.
• Demonstrated readership growth in deep enterprise journalism. In one year, traffic to paid subscriber site exceeded free site traffic counts.
• Reorganized news team around an audience listening and outreach strategy to maximize resources.
Articles, quotes and interviews from other outlets:
Josh Awtry joins a powerhouse panel of industry leaders to extoll the virtues of deep data dives into their customers’ digital reading habits and how to use that information responsibly to smarten editorial decision-making.
An interview with Josh Awtry and other industry leaders on how to help journalists get 'off the hamster wheel' and be more effective to deliver what readers want while fulfilling our journalistic mission.
The USA Today Network has transitioned from a volume-based to a blended subscription model — and its success hinges on newsrooms, according to Josh Awtry at the USA Today Network.
In an interview with the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin, Josh Awtry describes how he used is time in local media to apply responsible ethics to audience signals.
Growing up through community journalism across the country means that you're never above pitching in, teaching others the tools of the trade and developing your own skills while you lift up others on the team.
I can write, edit, design, build infographics, lead coverage teams, manage budgets, code websites, develop social strategies, analyze data and present compelling narratives through presentation skills. I lead hands on — I wouldn’t ask anyone else to do something I wouldn’t do.
What can I do to help? I'd love to hear from you.
josh@awtry.com
www.awtry.com