Kurt Gessler Email & Phone Number

Responsible for publisher tools and data platforms, generative AI, content personalization, subscriptions, and messaging platforms and strategy. Intersection of AI + journalism.

Greater Chicago Area

• Oversaw newsroom product development, audience analysis, and content, social, SEO and messaging strategy for the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, New York Daily News and other sites. • Senior member of teams tasked with conceptualization, planning and execution of dozens of user-centric products, gathering and prioritizing MVP requirements, setting success KPIs, finalizing job size, creating detailed roadmaps for rollout and iterative development, and deeply partnering with DevOps, design, analytics, marketing, AdOps, and editorial to ensure both user experience and business goals are successfully met. • Editorial lead on news personalization initiatives, including AI homepage content recommendations, AI-recommended subscriber re-engagement and subscriber acquisition emails, and iOS/Android app content personalization.• Senior editorial member of buildout, rollout, training and ongoing enhancement team on Washington Post’s Arc CMS.• Created various company-wide training programs and best practice playbooks on social media, content marketing, messaging, engagement etc.• Directly reported to/advised C-suite on product, content and data initiatives.

Taught graduate-level courses on digital journalism, audience engagement, social media and product management.

Managed 22-person team creating and curating content for the Chicago Tribune's website and apps, social media, messaging channels and the national desk for the company’s eight Midwest and East Coast newspaper websites and apps. Developed new ways to measure digital success across platforms and methods for project planning and promotion.

Lectured on various topics, including digital design, HTML5, CSS, responsive web design, SEO, social media, analytics and WordPress in various classes in the Master's of Science in Journalism program.

Responsible for day-to-day operations and social media at DailyHerald.com, established first internal tracking system to measure newsroom and online performance of the 1,400 stories and 15-20 pieces of multimedia published each week; created first departmental workflow procedures based on best practices and metrics; collaborated with programmers on site development and enhancement, both internal and market facing; helped introduce story commenting, blogs, video blogs, expanded multimedia and story packaging. The result -- 91% audience growth in three years. This growth led Business Insider to pick the Daily Herald as one of the 25 newspapers which will be around in 10 years.

Oversaw all facets of a pilot entertainment weekly publication and Web site targeting young readers; part of management team which conceptualized and created the product and responsible thereafter for project managing all development and enhancements, including e-blasts, specialized databases and mechanisms for user-generated content like community-based blogs and reverse publishing; supervised all marketing initiatives and partnerships, including contests, guerilla marketing efforts and community events like local music concerts and parties bringing a high-energy radio marketing feel to traditional journalism

Managed a 17-person newsroom for the Daily Herald in a high-growth, highly competitive market. Duties included oversight for editors, reporters, senior reporters and photo staff.

Front-line editor and planner in Daily Herald's second largest bureau overseeing reporters and photojournalists in Kane and McHenry counties.