Monday marks Bobby Blanchard’s six-year anniversary at The Texas Tribune, a milestone that doesn’t include his early experiences here as an intern in 2014 and 2015.
As chief audience officer, Bobby has helped oversee the doubling and diversification of the Tribune’s audience, a core goal of the strategic plan we announced in 2018.
I am very pleased to announce that Bobby has been promoted to director of audience and a member of the Tribune’s senior management team. In this new role, you will work closely with myself, CEO Evan Smith (and his successor) and the rest of the team to achieve goals related to engagement, membership, newsletters and service journalism.
Over the past decade or so, audience engagement positions have thrived as newsrooms have recognized how much more active journalists need to be in getting outside of our work, identifying new audiences, and earn their trust. Skills like search engine optimization and skillful use of social media are still critical, but the work of the public has grown far beyond that.
For example, under Kassie Kelly’s leadership, our membership program is approaching 10,000 members pledging up to $1,000 a year. Also with Bobby, Allyson Waller has revitalized our newsletters and María Méndez has produced fantastic journalism that directly addresses readers’ most important information needs. John Hernandez recently joined us as Assistant Director of Audience and has already made a big impact with his thoughtful leadership.
We will also be releasing a new audience producer role; this hire will work closely with John and Audience Producer Natalie Martinez on the daily distribution of our off-platform journalism. Jessica Priest, as an engagement reporter for the ProPublica-Texas Tribune team, also continues to report to Bobby.
As a member of the senior management team, Bobby will lead our strategic response to our recent audience study by research firm Magid, which was full of insight into our current and potential audiences and identified key areas of opportunity for us. reach even more jeans. Bobby’s participation in the Tribune’s senior management team will formalize what we already know: Bobby is central to everything we accomplish here and a big part of the Tribune’s future.
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