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CHRIS JENNEWEIN Home (858) 755-2665 Home Office (858) 755-2671 Cell (858) 519-7337 |
Senior executive with 23 years experience in online and Internet product development and operations, and 12 years in newspaper management, editing and reporting. Visionary leader with a record of rapid, successful innovation in products and technology. Effective manager who brings out the highest productivity in a staff. Excellent writer, communicator and public speaker.
SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
General Management
· Senior Regional Editor in Southern California for Patch.com during its period of dramatic growth nationwide. Hired staff and helped launch 27 sites in San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles counties. Patch is now in 70 communities in Southern California and nearly 800 across the United States.
· First president of U.S. Local News Network, a startup
media company that launched local news sites in San
Diego, Orange and Riverside counties. The three sites collectively reached 500,000 unique
users in their best month. Local advertising was sold out at a $10 CPM. Secured
financing, built sales team, established editorial direction and recruited
local media partners.
· Transformed SignOnSanDiego.com, a regional newspaper Web site, into the No. 1 news site in its market. Tripled readership and advertising revenue, changing the 65-employee operation from a money-loser to a profitable, $18 million division of The San Diego Union-Tribune. SignOn was one of the five best-read newspaper sites in 2007.
· Built advertising, marketing and general business
foundation for LasVegasSun.com and LasVegasSun.com at Greenspun Interactive. Revenue grew at double-digit rates
despite the brutal recession affecting
· Led project to build local/regional portal sites in 30 markets. Managed technology integration, relations with field offices, product design and site production. The Real Cities II network went from corporate approval to full deployment in nine months in 1999.
· Conceived and led 14-month crash program in 1995-97 to launch Web publishing operations at all 32 newspapers operated by Knight Ridder, then the nation’s second largest publisher.
· Managed start-up project to create the nation's first online and Internet newspaper at the San Jose Mercury News in 1992-94. Hired staff, selected vendors and championed project within the company, to the press and to the newspaper industry. Project reached breakeven in three years.
· Led 50-person R&D business for Cox Newspapers. This unit developed and market-tested early new media applications, including audiotext, videotext, operator services and fax publications.
Product Development
· Launched
two, 24-hour Internet radio stations in
· Created first complete online newspaper, Mercury Center, at the San Jose Mercury News. Personally designed prototypes for both America Online and the Web.
· Developed first consumer agent/alert service on America Online and the Internet. NewsHound used real-time search technology to send news articles to 5,000 customers via email.
· Designed Access Atlanta, an early videotext newspaper, for The Atlanta Journal & Constitution. This online service offered news, classified ads and searchable archives along with such features as email, chat and bulletin boards.
· Conceived and in two months produced a commemorative hardcover book on the Atlanta Braves for The Atlanta Journal & Constitution. Established telephone sales and fulfillment system that sold 30,000 copies and generated $1 million in revenue.
· Directed daily operations for the Real Cities network of 60 local Web sites serving 4.5 million unique users. Set up centralized hosting, established performance measurement, built internal networks, organized support processes and managed real estate and facilities.
· Negotiated 10-year, $9 million lease for the national headquarters of a new Internet company, KnightRidder.com, and leased other real estate for offices in eight cities. Moved 300 employees to nine new offices in four months without disruption.
· Built high-volume Web publishing infrastructure for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s leading newspaper, and managed support and service between San Jose and Tokyo.
· Created 25-person software development organization for Knight Ridder. Established industry-standard practices such as version control, weekly code builds and configuration management.
· Led development of a distributed Web publishing platform based on centralized hosting and inexpensive UNIX staging servers. This platform was installed at 29 Knight Ridder newspapers.
· Active in the
· Frequent speaker and panelist at newspaper industry and new media conferences.
· Presented Knight Ridder’s new media strategy to stock
market analysts at industry-sector forums and private meetings in
· Received first EPpy award (1999) for individual achievement by Editor & Publisher magazine.
· Elected New Media Pioneer (1997) by the Newspaper
Association of
· Profiled in the book Crusaders, Scoundrels, Journalists: The Newseum's Most Intriguing Newspeople, (Times Books, 2000).
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2010-Present |
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Southern California |
Senior Regional Editor |
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2009-2010 |
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SDNN / SWRNN / OCLNN |
President |
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Greenspun Media Group |
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2008-2009 |
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Greenspun Interactive LLC |
Senior Vice President and Publisher |
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Copley Newspapers |
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2001-2008 |
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The San Diego Union-Tribune |
Vice President of Internet Operations |
2006-2008 |
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The San Diego Union-Tribune |
Director of Internet Operations |
2001-2006 |
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Knight Ridder |
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1992-2001 |
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KnightRidder.com |
Vice President/Operations |
1999-2001
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Knight Ridder New Media |
VP/Technology & Operations |
1996-99 |
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Knight Ridder New Media Center |
Director |
1995-96 |
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San Jose Mercury News |
General Manager/Mercury Center |
1992-95 |
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Cox Newspapers |
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1979-1992 |
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Voice Information Services |
Vice President & General Manager |
1990-92 |
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The Atlanta Journal & Constitution |
Director of Information Services Asst. Managing Editor/Administration Asst. Managing Editor/Features Asst. Managing Editor/Business |
1988-92 1986-89 1985-86 1983-85 |
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The Atlanta Constitution |
Assistant Business Editor Assistant National Editor |
1980-83 1979-80 |
Scripps Howard |
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1976-1978 |
The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal |
Reporter |
1976-78 |
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Media General |
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1970-1975 |
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Tampa Tribune |
Intern Reporter Copy Boy |
1973-75 1970-72 |
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London School of Economics and Political Science, London, England |
M.Sc., 1979 |
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University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
B.A, M.A., 1976 |
Married with twin 19-year-old daughters. Interests include building robots and musical instruments; reading history; travel; and experimenting with personal computers and networks.