Mitch Gelman Named Gannett Digital VP/Product

Gannett Co. announced today Mitch Gelman was named vice president/product at Gannett Digital. He will be responsible for overall product management of Gannett’s portfolio of websites and mobile products, including USAToday.com and Gannett’s local newspaper and broadcast sites, reporting to Gannett’s Chief Digital Officer David Payne.

Prior to coming to Gannett, Gelman was a vice president at Examiner.com and chief operating officer at THX Ltd. From 2001 to 2008, he managed operations at CNN.com as SVP and executive producer, extending the CNN brand to multiple digital platforms and achieving double-digit revenue and traffic growth for eight consecutive years. Gelman and Payne worked together to relaunch CNN.com in 2007 with the early vestiges of live video, social media, and search optimization. From 1998 to 2000, Gelman was executive editor of SI.com, the No. 3 sports site in the U.S.

In addition, Gelman worked as projects editor at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (1997-1998), editor-in-chief of ESPN.com (1995-1997) and as a reporter at New York Newsday (1986-1995) when it won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for spot news coverage of a fatal subway crash. He also worked as a stringer for Time magazine and authored six children’s books for the interactive “Play-It-Your-Way” sports series.

“Mitch has the ideal background and experience to lead the product management of our core digital products, having guided the digital transformations of CNN.com, SI.com, and ESPN.com,” said Payne. “With his operational and journalism skill set, Mitch will be a key player as we continue to expand our digital efforts to leverage the incredible news organizations Gannett has in the U.S. and U.K.”

Gelman holds a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities with highest honors, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a Rotary Foundation Fellow at the National University of Singapore where he studied the political economy of Southeast and East Asia.

He is on the advisory board of the Knight Foundation Digital Media Center and the Online News Association.