Block Club Chicago · 2022–2026
Building a revenue department from zero
I joined as the organization's second-ever hire outside the newsroom. Revenue was ad hoc, with no systems and no dedicated staff. My first hire mapped existing operations before we changed anything. I then led the first strategic planning session with the co-founders, designed a new budgeting system, and hired leads across advertising, membership, major gifts, development and operations. Membership came first because it compounds everything else.
Earned revenue grew 2.5×, grant reliance fell from 61% to 38% of revenue, and the organization grew from 33 to 43 staff.
Block Club Chicago
A sponsored-content ban that became leverage
Sponsored content is often a newsroom's largest ad line. I advocated for banning it outright, confident we could hit our goals without it and that the policy would earn editorial trust. When a national bank's multi-newsroom partnership later required sponsored content from every participant, our written policy let us negotiate alternative terms.
Block Club was the only participant to secure an alternative. The other newsrooms asked how we did it.
Block Club Chicago
Pricing built on reader research
After seven years of unchanged pricing, I co-led audience research with our Director of Membership: a survey of nearly 2,500 readers and 18 hour-long one-on-one interviews. The findings shaped a new tiered subscription model, launched alongside a platform migration and new data infrastructure.
Subscription revenue up 37%, new subscriptions up 96%, 99% monthly retention, and a first-ever LION Award nomination in a revenue category.
Chicago Sun-Times · 2018–2022
Choosing loyalty over clicks
I more than doubled the Sun-Times' audience team, overhauled its publishing and social strategy, and redesigned its email strategy around repeat engagement, using open rates rather than clicks as the main measure. That led to the Afternoon Edition, a personality-driven newsletter that became the template for the paper's rebuilt newsletter lineup. As VP of Marketing, I later repositioned our branding and conversion strategy for the move from a paywall to nonprofit membership.
67% open rate at launch, 289,000+ newsletter subscribers, 2.9M monthly site visitors and 1.5M+ social followers.
Block Club Chicago · Product development
Tools that fix workflow problems
A newsroom sending 15 to 20 emails a day can't afford clunky production. Using AI-assisted development, I designed and shipped lightweight web apps that staff use every day: a newsletter builder with a two-person submit-and-finalize workflow tied into our email platform, a portal where advertisers submit their own ad content, and a report generator that turns campaign data into branded advertiser reports.
Manual production steps replaced by simple tools for non-technical staff, plus automated subscription data pipelines and live revenue dashboards.
DNAinfo Chicago · Product development
Neighborhood Square
As senior editor, I was the editorial lead on Neighborhood Square, a standalone, branded social networking product linked to DNAinfo's news site. It gave neighbors a place to share content and talk about local news, connected directly to the newsroom's coverage.
Community platform built in-house, an early bet on owned audience relationships for a hyperlocal newsroom.
