Chris R. Vaccaro Email & Phone Number

Lake Grove, Ny, Us

New York, Ny, Us

Oversee sports consumer products, digital collectibles, NFTs, and creative services at Quidd, an Animoca company focused on collectibles technology and e-commerce. Work directly with the Manchester City and Newcastle United football clubs and Leaf Trading Cards on digital cards, monetization, and product management. Manage P&L, marketing, communications, and business development. By building a daily GTM release strategy, I grew sports revenue from mere pennies to a 100% increase within six weeks of joining the company.

White Plains, Ny, Us

Help multi-platform baseball media company with communication strategy and editorial operations to grow the brand internationally. Growing audience, platform management, and product development for a unique brand serving global baseball fans. By developing a new global daily content strategy, I grew page views, audience, and social engagement metrics by about 4,000% since joining the organization. Our social strategy has grown exponentially, including hiring a TikTok producer who helped generate 1 million views, 50K likes, and 3,000% follower growth in 3 months.Hired a global staff of content producers from various baseball hotbeds, including Japan, Latin America, and Europe. Launched WBN weekly baseball headlines email that shares the world's top stories. Developed the company's internship program, which has hired dozens of journalism and production students from some of the top schools in the United States.

Founded and operate a boutique strategic communications and marketing agency working with local municipalities, school districts, non-profits, sports organizations, and small businesses on media relations, crisis communications, issues management, and executive communications. Handle social media management, internal communications, and stakeholder management.

Hempstead, Ny, Us

Began as an adjunct professor and eventually took over the graduate journalism program. Inherited a program with 10 enrolled students and worked on recruitment and admissions to bring the total number of students to 50, an increase of 400%. Developed new specializations in community and investigative journalism, as well as sports and entertainment journalism.Graduate courses taught: Innovative news platforms and product development, advanced sports journalism, and media relations techniques in sports and entertainment.Undergraduate courses taught: intro and advanced digital journalism, intro and advanced news writing and reporting, copy editing and ethics. Regularly host and moderate panels on campus about sports journalism, sports media and society, investigative journalism, and multiplatform storytelling.Presented at the 2022 AEJMC Midwinter Conference at the University of Oklahoma and 2023 AEJMC Southeast Colloquium at Middle Tennessee State University on "building the next generation of community and investigative journalists."

Berwyn, Pennsylvania, Us

Tasked with building a business unit focused on direct-to-consumer media and sports content through autonomous technology and artificial intelligence. Oversaw editorial, product management, thought leadership, and operations.

Queens, New York, Us

Leader in digital editorial, growth, platforms, partnerships, news optimization, product management, social media, mobile applications, sales, streaming services, production, and operations for News 12 Networks (NY/NJ/CT), Cheddar News (U.S.), and i24 News (Tel Aviv). Saw considerable growth in digital revenue (40%), social engagement (60%), and pageviews and video views (50%). Took revenue from $900,000 to $5.5 million annually. Took page views from 20 million to 30 million monthly. Took video views from 3 million to 5 million monthly. Refined a product management process to service the audience and the technology while investing in backend technology to help the staff produce news more efficiently. Oversaw three content management system builds, a streaming service launch, and significant product development. Also put News 12 and Cheddar on 50-plus news distribution and content aggregation networks.Built an email newsletter product, launched a podcast network, and developed a documentary team that won two Emmys, nine Murrows, and 50-plus other journalism awards. Steward of professional development and staff growth by offering several internal training sessions and seminars on digital production. Re-launched and oversaw the News 12 internship program for both the linear and digital networks. Developed an educational partnership with Montclair State University.Earned a $250,000 Google News grant for an AI tool I developed with partners from our engineering team that curates stories from our vast library and serves a front-end system geared toward a younger demographic. The test was to see if we could build a different audience with the same content on another site if it looked and felt different.

New York, Ny, Us

Managed operations, product, communications, strategy, monetization, programming, and business development for a multi-million-dollar direct-to-consumer collectibles publishing business. Additionally, oversaw licensing, partnerships, and all media partner, vendor, and athlete relations. Scaled Mobile Development & Publishing line of business, resulting in an increase in enterprise value of the company by 20%, or over $150M, at its peak during my tenure.Operated portfolio of 8 mobile apps, launching MVPs, finding product-market fit, and maximizing unit economics to scale the business 20x in under 5 years; business achieved peak revenue of $35M annually, 20% operating margins, and profitability by year 4; the franchise has grossed over $150M in revenue for the company during my tenure.Oversaw innovative GTM strategies, increasing DAU 7.5x in 3 years; uncovered new social and influencer acquisition channels; deployed multimillion-dollar marketing budget on data-driven ads across 10+ mobile ad networks; optimized conversion funnels using A/B testing to boost retention and monetization.Led 40-person operations and creative services team responsible for product, engineering, design, analytics, operations, business development, and marketing, transforming Topps from a maker of cardboard products into a Top 50 iOS Developer by global revenue.Apps included platforms for MLS, Premier League, Champions League, MLB, NHL, NFL, UFC, WWE, Walking Dead, and Star Wars. Other partners included MLBPA, NFLPA, NHLPA, NHLAA, IMG, Lucasfilm, AMC, USA Today, Getty, and Associated Press.Developed strategic vision on daily live operations cadence for timely multimedia content, analyzing data on decisions affecting key KPIs, including audience engagement, revenue growth, and retention. Managed a team of producers, designers, and community managers who produced content around the clock for mobile, social, and web.

New York, Ny, Us

Served as regional sports editor for Patch.com's Long Island editorial operations and editor/founder of Sachem Patch. Chaired the national Patch Sports Strategy Committee and sat on the company's programming committee. Covered two Super Bowls, NFL Draft, MLB Draft, Belmont Stakes, NCAA Tournament for basketball and lacrosse and helped grow Patch's national sports strategy.

Worked as reporter and photographer covering local news, government and politics, education, sports and business.

New York, New York, Us

Served as online producer managing content for one of most visited news websites in the world. Worked on the national politics, New York City news, and sports desks. Worked with reporters, photographers and editors to place timely and unique multimedia content online. Tracked web highlights through aggressive data and analytics.

Worked as reporter and photographer covering pro and amateur sports. Helped with layout, copy editing, story assignments and execution on reporting for weekly newspaper in eastern, Long Island.

Do-it-all editorial role for start-up local sports publication: reporter, editor, photographer, broadcaster for web video and radio series. Helped build and develop web platform for daily high school sports coverage. Coordinated content partnerships and platform experiences for local businesses in the sports industry. Sold advertising and sponsorship packages to local businesses.

Ba, Journalism

Ma, Public Policy

Education record

Doctor Of Education - Edd, Leadership Studies