Freelance journalist, former editor, reporter and content strategist
IN BRIEF: I was the founding managing editor of the Springfield Daily Citizen, a nonprofit news site created in 2021 by a collection of experienced professional journalists. The newsroom is based in Springfield, Missouri and is housed on the campus of Missouri State University, a partner of the Citizen.
I joined the Citizen from the LA Times, where I was a strategy and growth analyst embedded in the newsroom. Before that, I was a business reporter at the San Diego Union-Tribune covering tech, science and startups.
IMPACT: Just 7 months after launch, the Daily Citizen won its first national award for excellence in journalism, earning the “Breaking Barriers Award” from the Institute for Nonprofit News for its stories that humanized and helped the homeless.
Ten months into publishing, we had accumulated nearly 10,000 newsletter subscribers, representing about 6 percent of the city’s population. We also surpassed our annual paid subscriber goal in a matter of months, allowing us to expand the news staff and offer competitive benefits.
RESPONSIBILITIES: As a senior founding member of the nonprofit, I played a key role in the launch of the organization’s editorial products, including:
- Designing the WordPress website from scratch
- Setting up all company productivity, planning and creativity software, including Airtable, Prezi/Infogram, Slack, GSuite, ActiveCampaign, Pico, Parse.ly and Newspack
- Setting up publisher accounts on Apple News, Google News and NewsBreak
- Co-leading recruitment of news staff with CEO
- Designing and planning varied content for four newsletters, including:
- A daily news edition called SGF A.M.
- An arts, features and calendar-driven Saturday edition called SGF Weekend
- A meatier in-depth newsletter called SGF Sunday
- A podcast drop newsletter for In Our Town
Post-launch, my responsibilities include:
- Editing daily news
- Managing the homepage and content flow through the website
- Managing a news staff of seven journalists
- Overseeing the freelance budget, and coordinating with 12+ freelance writers, photographers, videographers and illustrators
- Managing website maintenance and IT support with vendors
- Mentoring interns from Missouri State University and Drury University
WORK HISTORY: Before joining the Citizen, I worked at the Los Angeles Times as a strategy and growth analyst embedded in the newsroom. There, I analyzed audience data and helped train over 500 journalists and editors in digital strategy at both the LA Times and its sister newspaper, the San Diego Union-Tribune. My tenure in the analyst role was brief, as I was recruited to the Citizen in the early days of its formation — and was eager to join the ambitious project in my hometown.
Prior to the Times, I worked as a tech reporter at the San Diego Union-Tribune and the San Diego Business Journal, and as a senior writer at Endpoints News.
As a journalist, I was consistently involved in newsroom development, creating new beats and sections based on audience opportunity. In 2014, I created the Startup Page section at the San Diego Business Journal, which later won Best Recurring Feature in a national contest by The Alliance of Area Business Publishers. At the Union-Tribune, I created the startup and local entrepreneur beat, which I grew to be a top-converting section. I was the lead on the newsroom analytics committee at the Union-Tribune, through which I conducted weekly reporting and wrote an internal newsletter on story performance. This led to my role as a strategy and growth analyst at LAT.
I graduated from Missouri State University in 2012, earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in political science.
Brittany Meiling 