Media Party X Keynote: Journalism Innovation with Aron Pilhofer, Digital Strategy Specialist from The New York Times and The Guardian, Now at Temple University
By Stephanie Zucarelli
To develop an effective communication strategy, understanding which tools will consolidate your audience is essential. Media Party X seeks to explore these dimensions alongside Aron Pilhofer, former digital strategy manager at The New York Times and The Guardian, and current Chair of Innovation in Journalism at Temple University.
Pilhofer joined The New York Times in 2005 as a project editor on the newsroom’s first digital-assisted reporting team. There, he promoted audience analysis through digital analytics tools and worked to build an approach combining editorial judgment with user behavior.
Two years later, he was named Associate Editor for Digital Strategy and Editor of Interactive News, helping shape a distinct language tailored to the new news consumer profile. He played a pivotal role in establishing news subscription models and user benefits across digital news portals.
Driven to further explore data journalism, Pilhofer moved to The Guardian to serve as Executive Editor of the digital team. Focusing on the interaction between digital tools and journalistic reporting, he restructured how statistical data was gathered using Big Data tools.
Journalists need to understand what is happening in the business so they can take the next step and become part of the solution. Journalists must get involved in the business of journalism, because if they don’t, they have the most to lose,” he explained during his 2018 visit.
Pilhofer also co-founded DocumentCloud.org, an open-source software platform that allows journalists to analyze complex documentation, extract specific parameters, and foster transparency when reporting hard data.
Drawing on his experience in digital product development, he joined the founding team of Hacks/Hackers, the organization dedicated to reinventing the media industry (and parent network of Media Party). These forums connect communication professionals and developers to build new tools for news curation.
Thanks to this initiative, Aron Pilhofer attended the 2016 and 2018 editions of Media Party, championing essential tools for communicators.
To attend Aron Pilhofer‘s keynote, visit the Media Party website via this link and register for venue access. Aron Pilhofer will speak at the opening of Media Party on Thursday at 9:00 AM at Ciudad Cultural Konex.
