HispanicBusiness

NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwire) -- 07/19/12 -- Digital First Media, which operates MediaNews Group and Journal Register Company, today announced the creation of a national Curation Team as part of Thunderdome, the Company's centralized news operation.

Julie Westfall, former Associate Editor for KPCC.org, will join Digital First as Curation Team Leader. Ms. Westfall, reporting to Digital Projects Editor Mandy Jenkins, will drive the development and execution of national and local curation strategy across Digital First Media. She will lead the team of curators in the day-to-day news process and coordinate their efforts with those of local newsrooms across Digital First's footprint.

"Providing context to everything we curate is vital to providing a comprehensive news report. It's our responsibility to bring these stories to each of our local markets and to ensure the staffs of our more than 75 newsrooms can focus their energies and efforts on the local reporting they do best," said Ms. Jenkins. "This team will be an essential part of our network coverage of everything from national politics and elections to national breaking news. Their main charge is finding ways to bring these stories home to every city and town we serve."

Angela Carter and Karen Workman, who have most recently served as Community Engagement Editors at the New Haven Register and The Oakland Press respectively, will join the team as Curators. The Curators will be responsible for tracking, collecting, crafting and distributing curated national news for publication across Digital First Media's properties. Both Ms. Carter and Ms. Workman will continue working from their local newsrooms and will report to Ms. Westfall.

"This team includes some of the best audience-focused journalists I have found in my career. Julie, Karen and Angela understand what readers want and they will employ every tool available to us to ensure they find stories our audiences will be interested in reading, watching and hearing," said Steve Buttry, Digital First Media's Digital Transformation Editor. "As part of Thunderdome's Curation Team, Julie, Karen and Angi aren't just responsible to serve each one of our newsrooms but they're responsible to serve each one of our readers."

Ms. Westfall joins Digital First Media from Southern California Public Radio in Los Angeles, where she helped develop and manage a digital-forward workflow for KPCC.org beginning in 2011. In 2010, Ms. Westfall was part of the team that launched TBD.com, a local news startup covering the Washington metro area, where she directed daily breaking news coverage and editing. Previously Ms. Westfall directed print and online redesigns and coverage as Managing Editor of the Voice of the Hill in Washington D.C.