Experience

StartupNation
• Online Media
• 1 - 100 Employee
• Chief Operating Officer

  • Jul 2022 - Present


Self-employed

• Real Estate
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Independent Consultant

  • Sep 2021 - Jul 2022

  Working with publishers, newsrooms and startups to develop audiences and build businesses. Specializing in developing content and audience engagement strategies and helping teams navigate the intersections of editorial, product and marketing. Currently working with the Facebook Journalism Project as coach to multiple news publishers seeking to transform their organizations and increase digital consumer revenue through subscriptions and memberships. Working with publishers, newsrooms and startups to develop audiences and build businesses. Specializing in developing content and audience engagement strategies and helping teams navigate the intersections of editorial, product and marketing. Currently working with the Facebook Journalism Project as coach to multiple news publishers seeking to transform their organizations and increase digital consumer revenue through subscriptions and memberships.



Chicago Tribune Media Group and Tribune Publishing

• Editor-in-Chief and Chief Content Officer

  • Feb 2020 - Aug 2021

  Oversaw all newsroom activities. leading the newspaper through the COVID-19 pandemic and one of its most turbulent eras. Amid social unrest, political upheaval and the story of a lifetime, kept the newsroom focused on its journalistic mission and producing award-winning work, including an investigative series that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. Oversaw all newsroom activities. leading the newspaper through the COVID-19 pandemic and one of its most turbulent eras. Amid social unrest, political upheaval and the story of a lifetime, kept the newsroom focused on its journalistic mission and producing award-winning work, including an investigative series that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting.



Tribune Publishing Company

• United States
• Newspaper Publishing
• 300 - 400 Employee

• SVP/Chief Content Officer

  • Feb 2019 - Feb 2020

  • Guide all publishers and editors-in-chief in Tribune Publishing's eight markets on content strategy, audience analytics, digital transformation and culture change. Guide execution on editorial playbook under a Newsroom 2020 initiative aimed at driving audience, engagement and consumer revenue• Oversee all editorial operations at Tribune Content Agency, including Tribune Publishing's shared content teams, Tribune News Service, The Daily Meal and The Active Times• Integrate Best Reviews, Tribune Publishing's majority-owned product review business, into Tribune’s sites and newspapers, engaging consumers and delivering affiliate revenue for publishers• Coordinate all journalism and distribution partnerships, including for audio and video platforms, as well as social media partners and traditional legacy services such as The Associated Press• Represent TribPub across the industry and share responsibility for partnerships with major platforms such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple. Work with platform partners to secure journalistic tools, improve consumer subscription revenue and drive audience for all Tribune Publishing sites• Partner closely with Arc Publishing from The Washington Post to foster digital innovation and build audience at Tribune Publishing through adoption and expansion of the Arc tools suite• Advocate for editorial interests on the executive team and work closely with product, marketing, revenue and finance leads on all major company initiatives.• Advise a central print design and editing hub that I created which powers most Tribune Publishing newspapers, bringing standard, high quality newspaper production and lower costs to multiple titles• Helped guide TribPub to significant YOY gains in digital subscriptions and stabilization of EBITDA in 2018 and 2019 Show less

• Senior Vice President, Editorial Operations

  • Dec 2017 - Jan 2019

  • Conceived strategy and designed a playbook for all Tribune Publishing markets under the Newsroom 2020 initiative to drive audience, engagement and consumer revenue • Worked with editors across TribPub newsrooms to manage change while continuing to produce relevant, engaging journalism that makes an impact on our communities. • Created a central print design and editing hub that now powers most Tribune Publishing newspapers, bringing standard, high quality newspaper production and lower costs to multiple titles.• Forged new relationships with major platform partners, particularly Google and Facebook• Worked with multiple vendors and partners to adopt best practices across TribPub, expand relationships that proved effective and cancel non-performers, saving money that was put to use in local reporting.• Teamed with colleagues in advertising, product, circulation, marketing and finance to create a cohesive organization with a clear plan and quantifiable goals. Show less



Chicago Tribune Media Group

• United States
• Newspaper Publishing
• 700 & Above Employee

• Associate Editor

  • 2015 - 2017

  • Led the editorial side of Chicago Tribune Media Group’s efforts to expand digital audience and revenue; increased chicagotribune.com audience by 50 percent during tenure, including doubling in those key topic areas under direct team supervision • Supervised more than 160 direct and indirect reports across a dozen content areas, including National/Foreign, Entertainment, Food & Dining and Tech • Recruited and developed a more diverse, digitally native staff, with particular progress in promoting women leaders • Partnered with marketing and customer acquisition to craft new business models and strategies; slowed circulation declines and drove increased consumer revenue through new offers and products • Served as de facto publisher of CTMG niche media products, RedEye and Hoy; restoring RedEye and Hoy to profitability while reinventing organizations for millennial consumers and digital future • Directed newsroom’s cultural and structural shift from print to digital focus; reduced production cost to help drive $2.5 million in savings YOY, while developing new digital approaches and revenues • Represented Tribune within Chicago community and newspaper industry; forged partnerships with platforms such as Google and Facebook, and developed connnections within news organizations such as WGN TV/Radio and foundations such as the Chicago Humanities Festival, McCormick, Joyce, Polk, etc • Created new content relationships and negotiated better terms with outside vendors Show less

• Cross Media/National Content Editor

  • 2007 - 2014

  • Spearheaded new product and platform development:• Directed the team that created Blue Sky Innovation, the newspaper’s first native digital vertical, to cover Chicago start-ups, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs• Led development of the Printers Row app, a companion to our print literary journal that served as a content repository, an Ebook marketplace and a gathering place for book lovers• Initiated partnership with Agate Publishing of Evanston to produce line of Chicago Tribune print books, resulting in award-winning titles and more than $1 million in sales• Overhauled events strategy to focus newsroom on high-profile events (Lit Fest, Top Workplaces, etc.) or low-overhead, turnkey events meant to drive engagement with Chicago community• Fostered new relationship with Advertising to capitalize on innovative revenue approaches while protecting editorial integrity• Devised new methods of assessing digital performance, aimed at valuing both quality and quantity• Designed a new system of sharing content and production across Tribune properties:• Central editing and design raised quality of National/Foreign content and presentation across several Tribune newspapers; other topic areas included TV, Movies, Food, Travel, Health, etc.• Consolidation led to annual savings of more than $6 million across Tribune• Central wire editing led to efficiencies with content vendors, development of innovative technology solutions, etc. Show less

• Perspective Editor

  • 2007 - 2008

  • Re-imagined the Chicago Tribune’s weekly analysis section to widen appeal to younger readers and expand commentary beyond foreign affairs, politics and economics:• Elevated several weekly features, including Rex Huppke’s column and 10 Things You Might Not Know, helping develop them into long-running Chicago Tribune franchises• Opened the section up to writers beyond the news staff, particularly to women and writers of color inside and outside the Tribune newsroom• Developed graphic approaches to storytelling• Worked closely with writers to shape commentary pieces and make them more readable and accessible• Varied article length and approach, shortening many articles, lengthening some that needed more room and mixing up serious and lighter tones Show less



Chicago Tribune Foreign Press Services

• Foreign Correspondent/Foreign Editor

  • 1993 - 2007

  • South America correspondent, based in Buenos Aires. • Baghdad bureau chief, covering the war in Iraq. • Moscow bureau chief, responsible for covering all of Russia and the former Soviet Union. • Central America correspondent, based in Mexico City. • As Foreign Editor, McMahon oversaw the Tribune’s coverage of the war and occupation in Iraq, the post-war period in Afghanistan and the Palestinian uprising. • In 1999, shared an Overseas Press Club Award for reporting from Kosovo. Show less



Chicago Tribune, Dayton Daily News, Ashland Times-Gazette, Delaware Gazette

• Local news reporter and editor

  • 1985 - 1993

  • Covered national issues and national politics as Chicago-based general assignment reporter • Covered crime and law enforcement in Chicago and suburbs as lead police reporter • Was a leader of team that conceived, reported and wrote the Killing Our Children series, which chronicled the violent deaths of 62 children in the Chicago area. Series won the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for 1994 • Won Beck Award for Best Domestic Reporting for series on the conflict between Caterpillar Inc. and the United Auto Workers in 1993 • Covered local news, crime, social issues and human interest topics as general assignment reporter at multiple publications in Ohio, including during university • Served as assignment editor and copy editor at publications in Chicago and Ohio Show less



Northwestern University Medill School

• United States
• Higher Education
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Adjunct Instructor

  • 1988 - 1992

  Adjunct Instructor in reporting and copy editing for graduate students at Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL from 1988-1992 Adjunct Instructor in reporting and copy editing for graduate students at Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL from 1988-1992