Ryan Jaster Email & Phone Number

Rock Island, Il, Us

Rock Island, Illinois, United States

As the first digital news hire at the nearly 75-year-old TV station, I manage the content of multiple brands online and on social media, including Local 4 WHBF, Fox 18 KLJB, Hawkeye Headquarters, the 4 the Record weekly political program and OurQuadCities.com. Focusing on local breaking news, sports and weather, page views multiplied each year and in 2020 were up 606 percent over 2016. Helped lead the team to a Silver Dome Award for our John Deere Classic coverage in 2018 and the IBA Illinois Station of the Year honor in 2020. Local 4’s Facebook account tripled in followers and its Twitter account nearly doubled. Created the @HawkeyeHQ social media accounts, which passed the competitor I built for the previous six years in just two years on Facebook and Twitter. Organic success led to me managing a five-person digital team in late 2019 and a significant budget for social media promotion in January 2020. Starting with the 2018 Iowa football season, began assisting with coverage of the Hawkeyes football and basketball teams in an official, credentialed capacity, including all 2019 home and road football games and the Holiday Bowl. Member of the FWAA. Named 2018 Employee of the Year. Continued editing (and later wrote) Iowa Hawkeyes stories for WHBF during the freelance period listed below before returning full-time with additional Assistant News Director duties in June 2022.

Designed and produced multiple newsletters, edited stories and wrote columns on the Iowa Hawkeyes and other Big Ten teams for clients.

Davenport, Iowa, United States

Managed the content of the newspaper's web sites, including QCTimes.com, Hawkmania.com, Bix7.com and QCVarsity.com. Broke 6 million page views seven times in my first nine months on the job. It had only been done once before I arrived. Hit 74 million page views in 2011, more than 9 million better than the previous record. Worked our way back to 73 million in 2014 after two years of the website’s first paywall, including a record 9.1 million in July 2014. Wrote and produced several daily and weekly email newsletters with more than 100,000 combined subscribers. Sent email news alerts and mobile push alerts. Wrote a wrap-up of the most popular stories on qctimes.com every weekday by 5 p.m. Part of a corporate team that helped sites make the transition from Omniture to Google Analytics Premium and Chartbeat. Led a weekly online traffic meeting and presented numbers twice daily at print news meetings.

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Built the front page of chicagotribune.com every weekday morning. Managed the content of the news, business, sports and entertainment sections. Made daily decisions on story placement, edited staff and wire stories and produced photos and interactive features. Wrote and produced Daywatch, a daily email newsletter with nearly 60,000 subscribers, after its founder moved on to become the News Director at WGN Radio. Trained print staff in various content management systems and HTML. Served as an advisor to four interns during the launch of a social media and search engine optimization project. (Three of the four were hired full-time by the Tribune.) Wrote sports analysis for chicagosports.com and helped plan that site's transition to a breaking sports news site at chicagobreakingsports.com. Our team won a Digital Edge Award for Most Innovative Multimedia Storytelling and a Chicago Tribune Director's Team Award. I also was part of a special projects team nominated for a national Sports Emmy for work on the interactive documentary, "Football in Chicago." I also won an individual Chicago Tribune Interactive award "for exemplary work."

Evanston, Illinois, United States

Assisted with a graduate-level "Interactive Storytelling" class for one quarter and remained part of the adjunct faculty until relocating.

Elgin, Illinois, United States

Led the design of news, business and sports sections, including weekly Sports Insider tabloid. Created maps, graphics and other materials for use in print and online.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States

Managed the content of the world's No. 2 sports website. Wrote and designed section fronts and assigned sections to a staff of 10 editors. Decided story placement and edited staff and wire stories. Served as a backup baseball writer and ghostwriter for television personalities.

Rock Island, Illinois, United States

Converted a regional music magazine to a successful website that at its peak in 2003 ranked among the top three music news websites on Google and Yahoo. Wrote all news, conducted all interviews, covered numerous award shows -- including the infamous 1995 Source Awards at Madison Square Garden -- and managed all aspects of the site.

Davenport, Iowa, United States

Managed the content of the newspaper's seven Web sites, including QCTimes.com, Bix7.com and Hawkmania.com. Also produced Flood2001.com, which gathered Mississippi River flood news from four Lee Enterprises newspapers and won a 2001 Digital Edge Award for Most Innovative Use of Digital Media in News Event Coverage. QCTimes.com was named the Best Daily Newspaper Web site by the Illinois Press Association in 2001. Also produced three email newsletters per week and a daily "Afternoon Edition" e-mail, handled all incoming department e-mail and helped launch an improved entertainment section and calendar. Helped create an interface to make loading stories easier for newsroom staff that evolved into Blox CMS.

Los Angeles, California, United States

Wrote 20 music news stories per day and edited 40 for teen-oriented website founded by the creators of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” that folded only a few months after its official launch. Managed a budget of $25,000, one staff writer and several freelance writers.

Davenport, Iowa, United States

Designed pages, including section fronts and special sections, and edited stories. Also helped lead conversion to QuarkXPress, scanned and toned photos and designed graphics.

Davenport, Iowa, United States

Managed a staff of student journalists.

Moline, Illinois, United States

Edited all content and designed pages for independent monthly music tabloid. Also arranged interviews and helped launch an annual awards show.