Operating principles
Six things I actually believe.
These are the principles I use when setting coverage, building products and leading people. They are not slogans. They are the things I argue for in a room.
Six operating principles · swipe to read →
Everyone and everything has a story.
My job is to make someone a hundred miles away care about it. That means breaking something complicated down to what it actually means for a person, then telling it differently on each platform so it lands where they already are. I have never met a subject I could not find the interesting thing inside.
Real voices. Not officials.
The podium is usually the easiest quote and rarely the whole story. I push coverage toward the people living the consequence, and I have been on that side of a bureaucracy myself through the U.S. immigration process. It changes what you notice in a story.
Depth is the differentiator.
Commodity content is abundant. Depth is the strongest differentiator any editorial operation can create: reporting nobody else has, every day, not only in a special series twice a year.
Content is king. Distribution is the kingdom.
Publishing is not the finish line. I want strong content in front of people, my team’s best work visible and audiences talking. Choosing the right platform, presentation, community and release moment is part of the work. Great content nobody sees signals a distribution failure, not audience indifference.
Public media has to earn trust differently.
Public media cannot rely on history or mission alone. It earns trust by demonstrating fairness, independence and intellectual curiosity in every story, and by building sustainable products and operating models around how audiences actually consume news. After federal funding cuts, I implemented a freelance contribution model that helped protect reporting capacity.
Treat people right, and grow the underdogs.
Teams run on morale and trust. I empower the people I lead, learn what each person is genuinely good at, and invest in talent others may have overlooked. That is how you create work nobody expected.
I work by the numbers. We must reach audiences where they are, and go beyond the headline in every story we tell.