Work With Me

I’m taking on a small number of new clients.

I tackle hard problems. If you have an AI strategy to create, a transition to lead, a new product to invent, a data journalism project to launch, or a plan to publish into the agentic web, and you need help getting it done right, that’s the work I do best.

I founded ProPublica’s News Applications team, co-founded DocumentCloud, led product and AI as CPO of The City, and built the Knight Election Hub to help hundreds of local newsrooms cover the 2024 election. Now I help news and mission-driven organizations build things that don’t exist yet.

• News organizations that need to move on AI without handing their editorial judgment to a vendor.
• Foundations, universities, and civic-tech groups building new public-interest information infrastructure.
• Teams that need senior-level 0→1 thinking and implementation — someone to invent, prototype, and convene partners, not babysit an existing roadmap.
• Publishers who want their AI tools to be a shared newsroom capability instead of scattered private browser tabs and lost chat histories.

If your work lives at the intersection of editorial, product, data, and technology — especially where the answer isn’t obvious yet — we should talk.

• AI enablement and building. Together we stand up the tools, wire them into your real systems, and drive the adoption that makes them stick. Journalism is a team sport but typical AI tools aren’t built to be collaborative. I can help you offer tools to your newsroom that are genuinely useful.
• Data journalism. I’ve worked at the highest level of data and interactive journalism. Have a mess of data you need help untangling for your reporting — and presenting to your readers? I can help.
• Advisory retainer. A monthly thinking partner for editorial, product, AI, and innovation strategy — for leaders steering a transition who want senior judgment on call without adding a full-time seat.
• Fractional product and innovation leadership. Embedded, part-time leadership to launch a new initiative, product, or venture from zero — the 0→1 work of figuring out what to build and getting a first version into the world.
• Workshops, talks, and board advising. Sessions and keynotes on AI in the newsroom, data journalism, and the agentic future of public-interest information — plus board and governance advising.

I scope engagements to outcomes, not hours. Fees depend on the shape of the work, so the first step is a conversation.

I’ve built first-of-their-kind systems and handed them to the field:

• The Knight Election Hub directed $2.5M in tools, data, and services to more than 500 local newsrooms for 2024 election coverage.
• At ProPublica, I pioneered “news applications” as a form of journalism and built the teams behind Dollars for Docs, Nonprofit Explorer, and Electionland.
• DocumentCloud, which I co-founded, now holds more than 110 million pages of public records used by thousands of newsrooms.
• At The City, I conceived and edited an AI-powered coverage audit that analyzed thousands of stories to map reporting gaps neighborhood by neighborhood.

The recognition that goes with it: a Peabody Award, a 2025 Reed Award for the Knight Election Hub, and 18 Online Journalism Awards. My full résumé has the rest.

• A call. We map the problem and figure out, honestly, whether I’m the right person for it. If I’m not, I’ll tell you.
• A scoped proposal. Clear outcomes, a timeline, and a fee — no open-ended hourly meters.
• The work. I build and advise alongside your team, with regular check-ins and no surprises.

• Public-interest first. My career has been newsrooms and civic institutions — ProPublica, The City, DocumentCloud, and MuckRock, where I chair the board. I take work that serves that mission.
• Open by default. Much of what I’ve built has been open-source tooling for the whole field, and I run OpenJournalism.news to track and champion that sharing culture. Where it makes sense, what we build gets shared back.
• No lock-in. You own the code, the tools, and the decisions. I build so your team can keep running it after I’m gone.
• Honest fit over the sale. If I’m not the right person for the job, I’ll say so — and point you to someone who is.

I work with The Composition Collective. If a project needs a skill outside my lane — design, audience growth, fundraising — they bring in the right person from the collective rather than have me stretch to fit. You get me, and you get a network of peers I trust.

Tell me what you’re trying to build.

Not ready to talk? Look me up — LinkedIn, GitHub, Bluesky.