Digital First Media Names Julie Westfall to Lead Thunderdome Curation Team
New York, NY (July 19, 2012) – Digital First Media, which operates MediaNews Group and Journal Register Company, today announced the creation of a national Curation Team as part of Thunderdome, the Company’s centralized news operation.
Julie Westfall, former Associate Editor for KPCC.org, will join Digital First as Curation Team Leader. Ms. Westfall, reporting to Digital Projects Editor Mandy Jenkins, will drive the development and execution of national and local curation strategy across Digital First Media. She will lead the team of curators in the day-to-day news process and coordinate their efforts with those of local newsrooms across Digital First’s footprint.
“Providing context to everything we curate is vital to providing a comprehensive news report. It’s our responsibility to bring these stories to each of our local markets and to ensure the staffs of our more than 75 newsrooms can focus their energies and efforts on the local reporting they do best,” said Ms. Jenkins. “This team will be an essential part of our network coverage of everything from national politics and elections to national breaking news. Their main charge is finding ways to bring these stories home to every city and town we serve.”
Angela Carter and Karen Workman, who have most recently served as Community Engagement Editors at the New Haven Register and The Oakland Press respectively, will join the team as Curators. The Curators will be responsible for tracking, collecting, crafting and distributing curated national news for publication across Digital First Media’s properties. Both Ms. Carter and Ms. Workman will continue working from their local newsrooms and will report to Ms. Westfall.
“This team includes some of the best audience-focused journalists I have found in my career. Julie, Karen and Angela understand what readers want and they will employ every tool available to us to ensure they find stories our audiences will be interested in reading, watching and hearing,” said Steve Buttry, Digital First Media’s Digital Transformation Editor. “As part of Thunderdome’s Curation Team, Julie, Karen and Angi aren’t just responsible to serve each one of our newsrooms but they’re responsible to serve each one of our readers.”
Ms. Westfall joins Digital First Media from Southern California Public Radio in Los Angeles, where she helped develop and manage a digital-forward workflow for KPCC.org beginning in 2011. In 2010, Ms. Westfall was part of the team that launched TBD.com, a local news startup covering the Washington metro area, where she directed daily breaking news coverage and editing. Previously Ms. Westfall directed print and online redesigns and coverage as Managing Editor of the Voice of the Hill in Washington D.C.
Originally from Sarasota, Fla., Ms. Westfall is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a former Peace Corps volunteer, serving two years in the West African nation of Mali as a health education volunteer. Ms. Westfall will be relocating from Los Angeles to New York City to work from Digital First’s Thunderdome newsroom.
Angela Carter has been part of the New Haven Register staff in New Haven, Conn. since 1995, spending much of her career as a city-side and business reporter before her appointment to Community Engagement Editor in 2011. At the Register, Ms. Carter has led outreach efforts to listen to and partner with readers, including leading the Register’s Citizen Agenda election project in coordination with NYU’s Studio 20 and The Guardian.
As an original member of Journal Register Company’s ideaLab, Ms. Carter took on a role of innovation and outreach within Digital First Media, using her project to find ways to better connect with the New Haven community. She blogs on the Register’s community engagement efforts at Your Open Newsroom (http://youropennewsroom.blogspot.com).
Ms. Carter is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. and several industry organizations, including the Society of Professional Journalists, National Association of Black Journalists, Investigative Reporters & Editors and the Online News Association.
Karen Workman started her career with the Oakland Press in Pontiac, Mich. as an editorial assistant while she was still in college at nearby Oakland Community College. She was promoted to a full-time reporter position in 2007, where she quickly took on a training role within her newsroom on social media and multimedia tools.
Ms. Workman became the Press’ Community Engagement Editor in 2011, where she led daily reader engagement via social media, organized staff training and recruited bloggers for the site’s Community Media Lab.
Ms. Workman was selected for Journal Register Company’s inaugural ideaLab group, using her project to take her training efforts out of the newsroom and into the community (link: http://opnewsroom.blogspot.com/). As an animal lover, Ms. Workman writes the Dog Blog (http://opdogblog.blogspot.com/), a care and training blog for dog owners. She and her husband, Brent, are proud owners of Sensibull, a pit bull and Labrador mix.
Ms. Workman holds a degree in journalism from Oakland University.
About Digital First Media
Digital First Media (www.DigitalFirstMedia.com) is headquartered in New York City, and jointly manages MediaNews Group and Journal Register Company. Digital First Media reaches 57 million Americans each month through more than 800 multi-platform products across 18 states.
About MediaNews Group, Inc.
MediaNews Group, Inc. (www.medianewsgroup.com) is the nation’s second largest newspaper company as measured by circulation, with headquarters in Denver, Colorado. MediaNews Group and its affiliated companies publish 57 daily newspapers and more than 100 non-daily publications in 11 states.
About Journal Register Company
Journal Register Company is a leader in local news and information in 10 states. The Company’s more than 350 multi-platform products reach an audience of 21 million people each month. For more information visit the Company website at www.JournalRegister.com.
For more information contact:
Jonathan Cooper
Vice President
Digital First Media
jcooper@digitalfirstmedia.com
(215) 867-2022
