Eric Ortiz

Eric Ortiz Email and Phone Number

Associate Director of Research, Learning, and Evaluation @ The Pivot Fund
Minneapolis, MN, US
Eric Ortiz's Location
Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, United States
About Eric Ortiz

Eric Ortiz is a mission-driven leader and community builder. With 20+ years in journalism and community building, Ortiz has a track record of excellence in journalism, digital media, strategy, leadership, management, community development, youth programming, education, mentorship, and growth. He is skilled at setting creative visions and bringing creative visions to life.Ortiz was an editor in the early days of ESPN.com, then developed and led editorial operations for the New England Sports Network's new media team to build the most popular regional sports network website in the United States (NESN.com). In 2013, Ortiz was named a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University, the nation’s leading media innovation fellowship. He built a platform for mobile content production and storytelling, then founded and ran his own tech media company to strengthen local news.Since 2016, Ortiz has built on his legacy of excellence in journalism and digital media. He was managing editor of Truthdig, an award-winning independent news and culture website. He co-founded and was the executive editor of Community Based News Room, a national news site with the nonprofit social justice organization Law at the Margins, where he created an innovative, collaborative journalism model that elevated the stories of people impacted by law and policy and gave underrepresented communities often ignored by media a place for their voices to be heard. He was director of media at Granite Media and helped the pioneering tech media startup get acquired in 2022 by developing and executing a successful storytelling and content strategy. Following this success, he led another digital media startup (Big Edition) to profitability as the head of content and strategy. Now, Ortiz leads growth strategies and community engagement for the Southwest Connector, a local newspaper in Minneapolis, and is chief content officer of the Strong Mind Strong Body Foundation, a nonprofit youth development organization in Minneapolis, leading innovation in community building and education. Ortiz has distinguished himself as a leader at every step of his career. In 15 years of management experience, he has built and run many innovative teams. He has led Hall of Fame journalists, multimedia experts, technologists, educators, and community builders. He knows how to create and execute strategies that align with organizational goals, achieve results, and fuel growth. In everything Ortiz does, he likes to make a big impact. His mission is to create solutions that make people's lives better.

Eric Ortiz's Current Company Details
The Pivot Fund

The Pivot Fund

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Associate Director of Research, Learning, and Evaluation
Minneapolis, MN, US
Website:
thepivotfund.org
Employees:
8
Eric Ortiz Work Experience Details
  • The Pivot Fund
    Associate Director Of Research, Learning, And Evaluation
    The Pivot Fund
    Minneapolis, Mn, Us
  • The Pivot Fund
    Associate Director Of Research, Learning And Impact
    The Pivot Fund Mar 2024 - Present
    Atlanta, Georgia, Us
    *Design and manage research projects for The Pivot Fund, a venture philanthropy organization that invests in BIPOC-led community news through funding, capacity building, trainings, and opportunities for collaborative journalism. Partner with outside experts, academics, and consultants to produce projects.*Support The Pivot Fund’s news landscape analysis in the Midwest with the collection and analysis of data, community perspectives, and insights from across Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin.*Work with the director of learning, impact, and evaluation, to determine which communities to prioritize and design friendly, flexible sets of questions for collecting stories and information from community members and newsroom leaders. *Hire, train, and support local-to-state researchers to assist with interviewing and data collecting. Ensure a full analysis of underserved communities, including Black, Latino, Asian, Indigenous, immigrants, and rural groups. Identify emerging news ecosystems and media entrepreneurs and write reports with funding recommendations.*Conduct quantitative data collection and cleaning from various sources, including but not limited to survey data, administrative data, census products, and other scholarly data collection efforts.*Lead analysis and synthesis of developments within American democracy, identifying trends within and between different topic areas.*Establish relationships with grantee partners to assess the effectiveness and impact of Pivot Fund programs and grantee services.*Communicate program learnings to the sector, including funders and other key stakeholders.*Propose ideas for case studies, blog posts, briefs, and reports. Author and co-author reports, case studies, blog posts, and briefs.*Manage the development of resources — including but not limited to datasets, toplines, cross-tabulations, tables, charts, presentations — for internal use and public dissemination.
  • Strong Mind Strong Body Foundation
    Executive Director
    Strong Mind Strong Body Foundation Jan 2022 - Present
    *Lead strategic planning and manage all aspects of daily operations for nonprofit youth and family development organization. Lead community engagement and create and implement curriculum and community programming that promotes professional development, lifelong learning, and growth. Plan and lead community events that empower youth (PK-12) to build leadership skills. Increase educational and economic opportunities for youth, families, and communities.*Develop and manage partnerships with schools, businesses, and community groups to provide educational programs, resources, grants, and micro-internships for underserved youth in Latino, Black and indigenous communities. *Manage fiscal operations, budgets, projects, staff, events. Write and secure winning grants.
  • Southwest Connector
    Director Of Audience Development And Community Engagement
    Southwest Connector Dec 2021 - Present
    *Create and execute editorial strategies to grow audience and increase revenue for local newspaper in Minneapolis.*Manage and lead community events and editorial projects. Write column on local issues.
  • Spotlight Media Labs, Inc.
    Strategic Advisor
    Spotlight Media Labs, Inc. Jan 2024 - Mar 2024
    Sunnyvale, California, Us
    *Helped create and execute strategic plan with Spotlight executive team to grow Spotlight News, which is on a mission to provide a sustainable path for local news and deliver reliable local news and information to the next generation.*Established and managed relationships with local news publishers and schools with student news publications (colleges, high schools, middle schools) to add them to Spotlight News, a leading news distribution channel that delivers "your news, your way." Spotlight supports a wide range of publications, including familiar names, college newspapers, local newspapers, and nonprofits.
  • Big Edition
    Head Of Content And Strategy
    Big Edition Feb 2023 - Nov 2023
    San Mateo, Ca, Us
    *Led content strategy, content creation, editorial direction, digital marketing, and strategic partnerships at Big Edition, a digital media company with five brands that spun off from Granite Media, which was acquired by 6sense in June 2022.*Managed core content operations, publishing calendar, content strategy. Create content and organic-first growth strategy for Big Edition based on SEO, data, analytics, trends, and news judgment. Implemented content plans with remote team of 10-plus staff and contractors. Increased traffic 113 percent and revenue 119 percent in first year under my leadership. Led company to profitability.*Guided staff with constructive and actionable feedback to increase editorial quality, professional development, and revenue. Trained team on how to use data and tools to optimize content performance. Shared competitive insights, digital publishing best practices, and resources to maximize growth opportunities. Led development of processes to optimize editorial operations, maximize distribution, and increase revenue. *Established and developed partnerships with external organizations and third-party distribution platforms to grow traffic and revenue. Increased monthly revenue from partnerships 160 percent in first year under my leadership and increased affiliate revenue 294 percent.*Led creation, production, and distribution of first podcast and newsletters. Increased listeners for podcast series on high school football 142 percent. Increased readership for sports betting newsletter 31 percent in first three months with 38 percent average open rate.
  • Big Edition
    Director Of Media
    Big Edition Jun 2022 - Feb 2023
    San Mateo, Ca, Us
    *Lead editorial and growth strategy at Big Edition. Set organic-first content strategy and implement with remote editorial team to publish high-performing content with the highest editorial standards.*Train and develop Big Edition team on how to use data, editorial, and SEO tools to optimize content for organic traffic and maximize distribution opportunities. Led company to profitability.*Establish and evelop partnerships with other media and business organizations to increase distribution and revenue. Increased traffic 113 percent and revenue 119 percent in first year under my leadership.
  • Granite Media
    Director Of Media
    Granite Media Jan 2021 - Jun 2022
    San Francisco, California, Us
    *Oversaw editorial operations and business development for Granite Media and their five consumer brands: Always Pets, FamilyMinded, Far & Wide, Stadium Talk, and Work + Money. Promoted to director of media and assumed responsibilities of editor in chief, who left the company. Helped build and grow company that was acquired in June 2022.*Set editorial strategy and led remote team of 30-plus editors, writers, visual editors, and independent contractors. Hired, developed, and managed new team members. Published 30-plus stories weekly. Led development of SEO-first editorial approach and implemented processes to optimize operations and workflow. Tracked analytics, site trends, social data, and current events to guide editorial decisions, grow audience, and generate revenue.*Increased total publishing profit 40 percent year over year in 2021, including 80 percent profit increase for organic media.
  • Granite Media
    Senior Editor
    Granite Media Aug 2018 - Jan 2021
    San Francisco, California, Us
    *Launched Stadium Talk, a new sports website, in September 2018. Set editorial strategy and led editorial coverage. Established vision and voice for site. Hired and managed team of 20-plus remote writers. Assigned, edited, wrote, and published 20-plus monthly stories.*Reached 1 million monthly users for Stadium Talk in under two months. Increased monthly average users 27 percent and increased annual revenue 16 percent year over year in first full year in 2019.*Added daily editorial duties for Work + Money, Granite's brand focused on business, in February 2020. Ran daily editorial operations for Stadium Talk and Work + Money. Hired and managed team of 30-plus remote writers. Increased organic revenue 78 percent year over year across all Granite sites in 2020.
  • Law At The Margins
    Executive Editor/Cofounder, Community Based News Room
    Law At The Margins Apr 2018 - Sep 2021
    *Cofounded and ran a national public community newsroom as executive editor with Law at the Margins, a nonprofit social justice organization based in New York City. Assigned, edited, published, and distributed the stories of people and marginalized communities impacted by law and policy.*Developed and led collaborative journalism projects with immigrants, the unhoused, incarcerated, journalists, and non-professionals. *Organized and hosted webinars on community journalism and local news for marginalized and underrepresented communities. Wrote two winning grants from Solutions Journalism Network and taught solutions journalism to professional journalists and community members.
  • Truthdig
    Managing Editor
    Truthdig Feb 2016 - Jul 2018
    Us
    *Led editorial operations for award-winning progressive news site covering politics, current events, arts, and culture.*Managed 20-plus global staff of editors and writers, including full- and part-time employees and independent contractors. Assigned, edited and wrote news stories, op-eds, features, and live blogs. *Set digital strategy with publisher and editor in chief. Created analytics-driven publisher reports to track website trends, social data, audience development, and revenue generation. Increased average monthly users 60 percent in May 2018. Increased site revenue 40 percent from 2016 to 2017.
  • Evrybit
    Founder/Ceo
    Evrybit Jul 2014 - Dec 2017
    *Founded and led tech media company. Launched journalism app for mobile reporting and storytelling. Managed all operations, growth, business development, marketing, and goal executions.*Established strategic partnerships with media organizations, social media influencers, small businesses, schools, nonprofits, and community groups. Built mobile newsrooms with college, high school, and elementary school journalism programs. Organized mobile journalism workshops in marginalized communities to empower underserved communities through journalism, mobile reporting, and storytelling.*Raised $300,000 in investor funding. Open-sourced technology in December 2017.
  • University Of Southern California
    Adjunct Professor
    University Of Southern California Aug 2014 - Dec 2014
    Los Angeles, Ca, Us
    *Taught graduate news immersion class on broadcast, print, and digital media as part of collaborative teaching team at Annenberg School of Journalism.
  • Stanford University
    John S. Knight Journalism Fellow
    Stanford University Sep 2013 - Jun 2014
    Stanford, Ca, Us
    *Selected for nation’s leading media fellowship to work on innovation during year in Silicon Valley at Stanford. Became first Knight Fellow to be resident of Stanford Venture Studio at Stanford Graduate School of Business. *Researched mobile journalism, atomization and democratization of news, new business models for local news and community media, new distribution strategies, user-centered product development, and design thinking. Conducted extensive market research, competitive analysis, revenue modeling.*Built mobile publishing app prototype and tested with 20-plus journalists and media specialists. Built Venezuela Decoded, real-time platform covering Venezuelan conflict, as part of five-person team.
  • New England Sports Network
    Senior Editor Of New Media
    New England Sports Network Feb 2008 - Jun 2013
    Watertown, Ma, Us
    *Founding editor of NESN.com, website of New England Sports Network (NESN), the television network owned by the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins and one of the most valuable brands in sports. *Set editorial strategy and managed editorial operations of NESN.com from launch. Hired, trained, and developed 15-person editorial staff, creating top regional sports network website in the United States. Increased NESN’s digital revenue by 540 percent from 2008 to 2013 through aggressive publishing approach, web analytics, news judgment, SEO and live blogs. Increased NESN.com’s monthly unique visitors by over 500 percent, reaching 2.4 million in 2013 (comScore).*Executed over 30 cross-platform sales packages. Generated over $2 million in 2012 online ad revenue.Developed NESN’s social media strategy and built NESN’s social media reach to over 1 million fans. Launched NESN mobile app and NESN Nation, interactive online program complementing Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins television broadcasts.
  • Espn
    Associate Editor, Espn Digital Media
    Espn Jul 2000 - Jan 2008
    Bristol, Ct, Us
    * Assigned, edited and wrote daily pro and college sports content for ESPN.com. Coordinated MLB editorial coverage with 15-plus writers and ESPN talent. Worked across departments with all ESPN platforms. *Planned and executed in-depth editorial projects and on-site event coverage at MLB All-Star Game and World Series. Led 20-person team that produced ESPN.com’s first audio slideshow. Produced first ESPN.com MLB live blog. Created and led first bilingual multimedia collaboration with ESPN Deportes.* Edited and wrote team pages and Insider premium content for professional and college sports.

Eric Ortiz Skills

New Media Journalism Blogging Social Media Editorial Storytelling Editing Multimedia Social Media Marketing Sports Writing Ap Style Online Journalism Digital Media Video Editing Sports News Writing Copy Editing Newspapers Breaking News Post Production Broadcast Journalism Broadcast Feature Articles Seo Adobe Audition Entrepreneurship Publishing Online Publishing Web Content Creation Ap Stylebook Search Engine Optimization Broadcasting

Eric Ortiz Education Details

  • Stanford University
    Stanford University
    English
  • Stanford University
    Stanford University
    Stanford Latino Entrepreneur Leaders Program

Frequently Asked Questions about Eric Ortiz

What company does Eric Ortiz work for?

Eric Ortiz works for The Pivot Fund

What is Eric Ortiz's role at the current company?

Eric Ortiz's current role is Associate Director of Research, Learning, and Evaluation.

What is Eric Ortiz's email address?

Eric Ortiz's email address is er****@****dia.com

What is Eric Ortiz's direct phone number?

Eric Ortiz's direct phone number is +186075*****

What schools did Eric Ortiz attend?

Eric Ortiz attended Stanford University, Stanford University.

What are some of Eric Ortiz's interests?

Eric Ortiz has interest in Stanford Graduate School Of Business, Writing, Technology, English (Language), Npr, Stanford Football, Pasadena, Mashable, Liverpool F, Sports.

What skills is Eric Ortiz known for?

Eric Ortiz has skills like New Media, Journalism, Blogging, Social Media, Editorial, Storytelling, Editing, Multimedia, Social Media Marketing, Sports Writing, Ap Style, Online Journalism.

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