John Hassell Email and Phone Number

Responsible for editorial strategy and operations at one of the nation's largest and fastest-growing media companies. Advance Digital is a leading creator of digital news and information products that deliver multi-platform solutions for consumers and advertisers in markets across the United States, in partnership with Advance Local media groups. Sites include al.com, cleveland.com, lehighvalleylive.com, MassLive.com, MLive.com, NJ.com, NOLA.com, OregonLive.com, PennLive.com, SILive.com, syracuse.com and gulflive.com.

Led the transformation of The Star-Ledger into a 24/7 multi-platform news operation, including the creation of an online news desk and video department, and the training of a staff of 330 in multimedia storytelling, social media and community engagement. NJ.com, the Advance Digital website that is the online home of The Star-Ledger, has since grown to become one of the largest local news sites in the nation, and five of the original members of The Star-Ledger’s video team have won New York Emmy Awards for their work.

Edited the Sunday Star-Ledger, which at the time had paid circulation of 600,000 in the highly competitive New York metropolitan market, making it one of the dozen largest Sunday newspapers in the country. Responsible for planning, editing and working with all newsroom departments to produce the paper’s weekly flagship edition. Edited distinctive enterprise projects including a series examining the implications of the Patriot Act, which won a Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association, and “Deadly Secrets,” a cold-case investigation that led to the official re-opening of decades-old unsolved murders and charges filed against suspected serial killer Robert Zarinsky.

Expanded the scope and ambition of The Star-Ledger’s Sunday opinion section to include magazine-length commissions and signature pieces by staff writers that spanned news, politics, arts and culture, as well as original contributions from novelists, poets and artists including best-selling thriller writer Harlan Coben, U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and Mutts comic strip creator Patrick McDonnell. Arranged the first newspaper partnership with Mental Floss magazine for a weekly trivia column, and with Arts & Letters Daily for a smart global aggregation of ideas and trends in popular culture. Over the course of a year, established Perspective as one of the best-read offerings in the Sunday paper.

Traveled extensively during the 1996 and 2000 political campaigns with U.S. presidential candidates, including Bill Clinton, George Bush, Bill Bradley and Steve Forbes, and wrote take-outs and analysis during the 2004 campaign. Covered a diverse array of major national stories, including the Littleton, CO., school shootings, the plane crash that killed John Kennedy Jr. along with Carolyn and Lauren Bessette, the Clinton impeachment and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Foreign assignments included reporting trips to India, Switzerland, Mexico, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Named a finalist for the Livingston Award for overseas reporting in 1998, based on work in South Asia. Also wrote extensively about a colorful collection of New Jersey politicians, including Christie Whitman, Robert Torricelli and Jim McGreevey, culminating with the lead story anchoring The Star-Ledger’s Pulitzer-winning breaking news coverage of McGreevey’s resignation from the governor’s office in 2004. Appeared as a commentator on CNN, Fox News Channel, WNYC public radio’s “The Brian Lehrer Show” and Newsweek.com.

Served as a reporter and columnist in the Statehouse bureau during the administration of Gov. Christie Whitman, and as Middlesex County bureau chief at a time when five daily newspapers were engaged in a turf war for readers and advertisers in the central New Jersey county. Also worked as a special projects writer with assignments that included a trip with the U.S. military to Haiti to cover the restoration of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the New Jersey Devils’ first Stanley Cup victory and a collaborative project involving multiple New Jersey newspapers that revealed the financial impact of state regulation on municipal government.

Worked as a general assignment reporter covering a.m. cops, breaking news and regional business stories. Enterprise work included a data-informed narrative about South Carolina’s “Poverty Belt,” which won recognition from the South Carolina Press Association.

Responsible for news, sports and feature coverage at the nation’s oldest independent college daily, long regarded as one of the best college papers in the United States.