I grow digital media companies

About Me

I’m a digital media veteran with a passion for publisher success.

As a growth consultant with an editorial background, I help brands and publications turn great content into a meaningful business.

I’ve built massive audiences and engaged loyal member communities for some of the biggest companies in the world.

  • Until 2024, I led growth for Departures, the front page of luxury travel, food, and style for 4 million American Express Card Members.

  • Previously, I helped build MEL, Dollar Shave Club’s critically acclaimed men’s magazine.

I’ve toured virtually every journalism model in my 15-year career: local news, high-velocity digital media, e-commerce editorial, brand-backed, luxury print, social video, and newsletter-first.

what i do

  • Hands down, the most efficient way to build a relationship with your customer. Modern audiences expect something more than email marketing. They want a deeper connection.

  • Convert your reach into a loyal audience you own and operate. Develop a premium tier and grow subscription revenue.

  • There’s no growth without superb storytelling. We grow brand loyalty with great editorial: big swings, buzzy franchises, and influential voices.

  • Build loyalty, not just clicks. I can help you develop a better relationship with your customer community.

  • It’s not dead. The top traffic source for all websites is still organic search. I can help you do it right.

redefining growth around loyalty (not just clicks)

A winning aud dev strategy is people-first.

It starts with empathy: understanding who your readers are and what drives them. My team and I scour performance data to learn what our readers truly love and what makes them stick around.

The results tend to speak for themselves.

Making headlines
since 2009

Selected résumé below

Departures

Departures

Client: Amex
Agency: Giant Spoon
Dates: 2021–2024

I led growth content and audience development: travel guides, shopping guides, affiliate and e-commerce, newsletters, SEO, Apple, and off-platform publishing.

The flagship newsletter, which reached 4 million Amex Platinum and Centurion card members at a nearly 50% open rate, was a Webby Awards finalist in 2022.

In 2023, I revamped our e-commerce and merchandising, implementing a strategy to more than triple affiliate revenue.

MEL Magazine

MEL Magazine

Client: Dollar Shave Club
Dates: 2018–2021

At MEL, a print and digital men’s publication for Dollar Shave Club, I oversaw growth content and strategy, social media, SEO development, and editorial product. We “reinvented men’s media,” according to NiemanLab — not bad for a site that began as a bathroom reader.

MEL interrogated guy culture, broke big stories, and investigated the Seinfeldian mysteries of modern life. We were named Hottest in Branded Content in Adweek’s annual Hot List and a 2020 Most Innovative Publisher finalist at Digiday.

I grew the publication to 4.5 million monthly views, quadrupling our site and search traffic after we left Medium in late 2018. I grew MEL’s newsletter ecosystem to a 50% open rate, increased daily subscribers 10x, and doubled engagement on social.

MEL Magazine Reinvented Men’s Media

“The internet’s foremost twisted, hilarious, poignant, deranged, and assiduously one-of-a-kind men’s magazine. … MEL did everything it could to break the monotony — to be passionately brassy, weird, and gonzo. … No magazine did a better job of examining the bewildering social bonds that tie the masculine experience together.”

— NiemanLab

Mic and more

Mic and more

From 2015 to 2018, I was editorial director of tech and culture at Mic. I launched The Future Is Now, a channel about technology and social media, and Multiplayer, which covered games and progressive geek culture. I built a 15-person team of reporters, writers, and editors, along with a content strategy to aggressively grow organic search. We grew an audience of 8 million monthly visitors from zero.

(That’s me high-fiving in the New York Times report on Mic’s millennial-led newsroom.)

Even more

In a previous life, I was New York bureau chief at the Daily Dot, a web-culture blogger, a copy editor for Us Weekly and Rolling Stone, a dog food salesman, a T-shirt silk-screener, and a grocery carry-out boy.

I played drums in an ’80s cover band and a Carly Rae Jepsen cover band. I spent my early life playing punk and hardcore shows around Dayton, Ohio.

I have a B.A. in English from Kenyon College. I now live in Brooklyn with my wife, Ellie, a designer and creative director.

Say hi! I’ll recommend a Survivor season.