About Us
Who and what we are.
mediabistro.com is dedicated to anyone who creates or works with content, or who is a non-creative professional working in a content/creative industry. That includes editors, writers, producers, graphic designers, book publishers, and others in industries including magazines, television, film, radio, newspapers, book publishing, online media, advertising, PR, and design. Our mission is to provide opportunities to meet, share resources, become informed of job opportunities and interesting projects and news, improve career skills, and showcase your work.
Sponsor an event
or advertise with us.
Our
greater goal: To revolutionize the way creative/content industry professionals
relate. Call it the AvantGuild,
a new guild for the new guard in media. Media professionals have so much in common,
yet we work in our little cubicle worlds, rarely meeting, rarely sharing our collecitive
experiences. We want to create a new version of the 14th-century guild system—so
that talented professionals in related industries can meet informally, mentor
each other, work on projects together, and more. Go ahead, call us idealists.
Call us medievalists even!
Join
the AvantGuild network of media professionals today!
Click here to get support from our
customer community, and find out how to contact us directly.
Staff
| Kiran Aditham, Editor, AgencySpy [send message] Kiran joined mediabistro.com in June 2009 and has been riling up ad agencies ever since as the editor of AgencySpy. Prior to joining Mediabistro, Kiran spent two years as a digital reporter for Crain's Creativity magazine and two years before that as managing editor of online marketing site Adotas.com. On the side, Kiran dabbles in music/film journalism and his work has appeared in Fangoria, Grooves, XLR8R, The New Times and sites like PrefixMag.com. He still continues his unenviable search to find someone else who shares equal love and admiration for horror films, tennis and the Golden Girls. |
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| Omer Algar, General Manager [send message] Omer, our chief technologist and our operating officer, is responsible for maintaining and growing mediabistro.com. An avid J-24 sailor, he likes our company's sails trimmed and tactics ticking. Formerly at Logicat Inc., he managed the development and operations of educational data services, including the College Board's Enrollment Planning Service and Predictor Plus. He grew up in lovely Istanbul, finished high school at Robert College, and then came to the U.S. to earn a B.A. degree in computer science and economics from Hamilton College. |
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| Weston Almond, Producer/Director, Mediabistro TV [send message] Weston has produced and directed everything from award-winning videos for the Muppets to videos on land mine safety in Afghanistan, environmental awareness with Meryl Streep, and preppie clothing for Polo Ralph Lauren. He has written seven feature-length screenplays that are in various stages of development, including a comedy, Victory & Loco, sold to Warner Brothers Studios. Born and raised on the twenty-six mile long island of Manhattan, Weston enjoys all things nautical, from sailing as first mate aboard the historic 102-foot schooner Pioneer to delving into the history of passenger liners from all over the world. He is a member of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Writers Guild of America. |
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| Chris Ariens, Vice President and Editorial Director [send message] Chris joined mediabistro.com in July 2007 as editor of TVNewser.com and executive producer of the blog network and was promoted to editorial director in June 2009. Before joining mediabistro, Chris spent seven years at MSNBC, as a line producer, coordinating producer for the Olympics, and lastly as executive producer of daytime programs., Chris worked as a producer in local TV news in Green Bay (WLUK) and Tampa (WFTS). Born, raised, and schooled in Wisconsin; skiing and travel keep Chris from falling into a TV news trance. Follow TVNewser on Twitter. |
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| Damien Barchowsky, Programmer [send message] Damien has been writing the code that makes mb tick since 1999, initially as a freelancer and as a fulltime employee since the summer of 2003. Before he became a freelance tech guy in 1998, he worked for Bloomberg L.P., doing design work and computer programming for the TV network. He lives in San Francisco, and he writes and draws comics in whatever small amount of free time he can scrounge up. |
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| Amanda Barrett, Director of Marketing [send message] Amanda spreads the mediabistro.com love in a professionally appropriate way. She studied theater at Barnard College, Columbia University, and has an M.A. and M. Phil. in Performance Studies from NYU. Those things have turned out to be surprisingly useful in her marketing career. Amanda likes outsider art, fixing stuff, and all things Brooklyn. |
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| Donya Blaze, Managing Editor [send message] As mediabistro.com's managing editor, Donya spends her days, nights, and shower time thinking of new and interesting features that speak to the needs of busy media professionals. She should know -- before joining mb, she worked in every aspect of the business other than cleaning floors. She has been an on-air announcer for WOWI-FM, WPGC-FM, WUSL-FM, and WCAU-TV, and the urban programming manager for AOL Music and AOL Radio. More recently, she published the music magazine Milk and freelanced for HoneyMag.com, Sister 2 Sister, and Upscale. In her free time, she enjoys Cold Stone Creamery's Birthday Cake Remix (a Like It Serving, please), reruns of Martin (Damn, Gina!), and shopping for bargains (Do you have a rewards program?). |
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| Jason Boog, Editor, Mediabistro Publishing [send message] As editor of Mediabistro Publishing, Jason Boog curates publishing events and shapes the digital publishing curriculum at mediabistro.com. He also edits the GalleyCat blog and hosts the daily Morning Media Menu podcast. Before mediabistro.com, Jason was an investigative reporter at Judicial Reports and a publishing blogger for Know More Media. His work has appeared in The Believer, Granta, Salon.com, The Revealer, and Peace Corps Writers. |
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Anthony Capalbo, Senior Sales Manager [send message] Anthony Capalbo has excelled in online media sales and management with WebMediaBrands since 2000. He has always had a knack for taking the time to listen, understand, and respond to his client needs. Whether on the road or in the NYC or Connecticut office, Anthony is always working to help his clients achieve their goals. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and two sons and enjoys spending time with them, extended family and friends. |
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Jessica Carlson, Community Coordinator [send message] Jessica joins mediabistro.com after one year of working in public relations in New York City. Jessica graduated from University of South Carolina in 2010 with a BA in journalism and mass communication. Jessica is a music, food and SEC football fanatic. In her free time she can be found in the kitchen testing new recipes, out and about exploring the NYC music scene, or in front of the TV cheering on her beloved South Carolina Gamecocks. |
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Charlene Caronan, Event Marketing Associate [send message] Charlene joins mediabistro.com after two years of working in film publicity. Shortly after graduating from the University of Virginia, she decided to migrate north and give it a shot in NYC. She landed a job working at Fat Dot, where she ran publicity campaigns for the latest films, read scripts, planned premieres, and attended film festivals across the country. When Charlene isn't helping to plan the next Mediabistro event, she can be found striking up conversation with random Manhattanites, attempting to cook exotic cuisine, and plotting her next board game victory. |
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Jacky Carter, Community Manager [send message] Jacky came to mediabistro.com after three years in print design. She graduated with a journalism degree from The University of Kansas in 2006. If you plan on watching March Madness in her vicinity, you better be cheering for the Jayhawks. Jacky loves to travel -- her most recent trip was five weeks around the U.S., Caribbean and Costa Rica, where she flew like Superman on a zipline in a forest. Jacky also enjoys reading, writing, running, and when people efficiently use sidewalks. |
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Shao Chen, Director of Development [send message] Shao Chen hails from Brooklyn and likes to find new restaurants and places to eat at. She has eaten at almost all the restaurants in Chinatown and can tell you where to get the best soup dumplings or ice cream -- two of her favorite foods. Shao also knows several languages, such as Chinese, English, PHP, Java, VBscript, and Javascript. Shao graduated from New York University with a degree in Computer Science and Economics. |
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| Brandon Chez, Web Developer [send message] Brandon brings a variety of programming skills to the team at mediabistro.com. He graduated with a degree in Computer Science from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2009. He took many Web development jobs during college to stay current with the latest technologies. After graduating, he developed training simulations for the Navy at Lockheed Martin. Brandon is also an avid gamer and enjoys playing many games competitively. He was once featured on SpikeTV for drumming in the best plastic instrument Rock Band in the world. |
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| David Cohen, Lead Writer, AllFacebook.com [send message] David Cohen is not related to the editor of AllFacebook.com, but he does cover for Jackie when she’s off duty. He also edits mediabistro.com's Morning Media Newsfeed and has more than 20 years of journalism experience, including more than 10 in the online sector at publications like Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable. He is a New York University graduate who lives in Hoboken, N.J. |
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| Jackie Cohen, Editor, AllFacebook.com [send message] Jackie Cohen feels deja vu while editing AllFacebook, as she sees many parallels between Facebook’s rise and the dot-com 1.0 boom that peaked in 2000; that year, the number one weekly magazine, The Industry Standard, listed her as one of its senior editors. Her work has also appeared on Wired News, CBS MarketWatch, The San Francisco Examiner, Paper, Bloomberg News, and scores of other titles. She’s pushing two decades of journalism experience, about half of it covering technology, and more than one third of it working as an editor. She won a gold medal from the American Society of Business Press Editors in 1998, and also taught writing while completing an M.A. in English. |
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| Chiara DePaolo, Event Coordinator [send message] Chiara is member of the events team at mediabistro.com. She started her career in healthcare public relations but found event planning more exciting and fun especially when all the variables come together; which, somehow they always seem to do. When she is not planning a mediabistro.com event, Chiara can be found practicing yoga, baking or hunting for obscure and not so obscure restaurants. |
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| Evan Dierlam, Web Production Assistant [send message] As the new Web production assistant at mediabistro.com, Evan slings webs across mb assets and fights UI crime. At night, he can be found webbing his way across the city. Though a recent New York transplant, his gluttony for culture leads him to consume a plethora of museums and shows regularly. On mornings, he can be found wandering starry-eyed between stalls at the farmer's markets, or furiously writing or drawing, all while single-handedly increasing Sri Lanka's GDP through mass tea consumption. |
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Jessica Eule, Associate Director of Education [send message] Jessica comes to mediabistro.com from the advertising and business departments of Gourmet. She graduated from the University of Delaware with a communications degree and interned at CBS News, Zagat Survey, and Working Mother. When she's not busy planning classes, Jessica can be found scoping out the latest restaurant, catching up on her DVR collection of reality television, and expanding her knowledge of wines under $5. |
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Frank Fazio, Senior Director of Sales, Events [send message] Frank Fazio oversees mediabistro.com's event sponsorships, including cocktail parties, conferences, and panel discussions. Prior to joining mediabistro.com, he spent eight years as the director of sales at the Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo Series, which was formerly owned by WebMediaBrands. Frank is is a graduate of the University of South Carolina (Go Gamecocks!) and lives in Stamford, CT. In his spare time, you can find Frank coaching his daughter's soccer team, downloading music (legally of course), or hiking some random section of the Appalachian Trail. |
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Tonya Garcia, Editor, PRNewser, and Manager, PR Initiatives [send message] Tonya Garcia joined Mediabistro in August 2010 as editor of PRNewser. Most recently, Tonya was a member of the media team at the PR firm MS&L. Prior to that, she spent three years as a reporter with PRWeek. She's also written about other things in places like Fast Company, Essence.com and the New York Press. Tonya's been a member of the same book club for more than a decade, she has a master's degree in journalism from NYU, and she's from Brooklyn but (unfortunately) doesn't have the accent. |
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| Andrew Gauthier, Senior Editor, TVSpy, and Producer, mediabistroTV [send message] Andrew joined mediabistro in late 2010. He currently produces, edits, and hosts videos for mediabistroTV, including the weekly news show "5 Things You Need to Know This Week," in addition to serving as senior editor of TVSpy. Before joining mediabistro, Andrew worked as a non-fiction TV producer, delivering shows for A&E, ESPN, and CNBC. He originally hails from Minnesota, which means he loves anything served in a casserole dish. Oh, and Prince. |
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| John Gephart, Senior Developer [send message] John is a Web developer and information junkie. Sports interests include playing racquetball, skiing, and destroying friends in fantasy sports leagues. He roots hard for the Philadelphia Eagles from deep within New York Giants country. John recently taught a cat to roll over on command after being told it couldn't be done. His Tivo is always overloaded, and he has probably seen every episode of Seinfeld at least 10 times. John's work has nothing to do with chemistry or beakers. |
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Jeff Hazen, Senior Sales Manager [send message] Jeff comes to us after many years at Internet.com, having had responsibility for setting up and managing partnerships and revenue share programs along with forging new business development deals. After graduating college in Rhode Island with a degree in communications, he spent over eight years at one of the original computer product catalog resellers, Mac/MicroWarehouse, in a myriad of different (delete) sales and marketing roles, the last one culminating in the role of Director of International Marketing, overseeing the company’s product management and merchandising for overseas offices. In his spare time, Jeff enjoys travelling with his family to new and exciting places. |
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| Greg Horowitz, Director of Product Development [send message] Greg came to mediabistro.com from Time Inc., where, while working on renewals for People magazine, he learned more than he ever thought possible about Brangelina, K-Fed and other media-marinated nicknames. Prior to Time Inc., Greg ran online marketing departments at Uproar.com and Sony Digital Ventures and held various marketing and production roles at the Forward and Budapest Sun newspapers. A native of Princeton, NJ, Greg now lives in Brooklyn but loves to travel -- while plotting his next adventure, he often waxes poetic about his three glorious years as an expat in Hungary during the '90s. When not traversing the globe, he spends his free time running marathons (four and counting). Greg holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business. |
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Tiffany Kesden, Online Ad Trafficker |
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| Liana L. Kim, Manager, Job Board Operations [send message] Liana graduated from Binghamton University in '03 and has always worked in media. She lived in London for a semester, where she had the chance to travel Europe while interning at a production house. Her previous positions include working as an editor at PRNewswire and as an on-air programmer at Lifetime Television. Her most recent adventure was in Korea, where she taught English and worked as an assistant director at a TV station. From Nas to Coldplay, Liana doesn't discriminate when it comes to music. In her spare time, you can find her researching a new exercise plan that never seems to last. |
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Shauna Maher, Assistant Director of Education [send message] Shauna works with mediabistro.com's wide array of instructors to create content and programming for the education department's online offerings. Prior to joining mediabistro.com in 2006, she studied Comparative Literature at Georgetown University and interned at Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, and WashingtonPost.com. When not taking a Mediabistro class herself, Shauna can be found exploring the city, running along the East River, and counting down the days until football season. |
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| Caitlin McKinney, Online Marketing Associate [send message] Caitlin graduated from the University of Virginia in 2007 and began building her career as a media buyer for a political media consulting agency in the Washington D.C. area. After the 2008 election, Caitlin wanted to kick her creativity into gear, so she joined the CustomInk sales team, designing custom t-shirts. Following a fun weekend visiting friends in New York, Caitlin decided to quit her t-shirt job, move to the city and was lucky enough to stumble upon the mediabistro.com team. |
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| Amanda Pacitti, Education Coordinator [send message] Amanda joined mediabistro.com as an education assistant in November 2009. A recent grad of The George Washington University, she earned her BA in American studies, compiling pop cultural research on topics ranging in type from deodorant advertising campaigns to Rambo films to Disney's The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. She has interned with the National Museum of American History, CBS News and the Providence Phoenix, an alternative weekly located in her home state of Rhode Island. |
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| Ji Hyun Park, Editorial Assistant and Social Media Coordinator [send message] Ji Hyun joined the mediabistro.com team first as an editorial intern for the summer and fall of 2010. She then interned at the New York Daily News until she graduated from New York University with a double major in Journalism and Sociology. She returned to mediabistro.com full-time and now has an appropriate outlet for her media news hoarding. During her free time, she heads a cheap eats column at cityspoonful.com, using any excuse to eat at random food joints around the city. |
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| Stewart Quealy, Director of Content, Events/Conferences [send message] Stewart joined the mediabistro.com team in 2010 and currently curates the live events and conferences. Previously, he played a leadership role in running the Search Engine Strategies (SES) events as part of the original content team at Incisive Media. Prior to that, Stewart worked with Jupitermedia and was responsible for launching emerging technology events such as the Jupiter/IAB Advertising Forum, Plug.IN, Game Market Watch, Enterprise Linux Forum and ClickZ Online Video Advertising. Stewart has also worked closely with the open-source Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF), and the Object Management Group (OMG), an international not-for-profit computer industry consortium. Earlier in the dot-com bubble, Stewart worked with 101 Communications and SIGS Publications, overseeing their object-oriented programming portfolio of events, including Java DevCon, XML ONE and C++ World. Follow him on Twitter @stewq. |
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| Carrie Rons, Director of Accounts, Job Board [send message] Carrie joins mediabistro.com with more than eight years of online advertising sales experience. Previously at Yahoo! and The Knot Inc, Carrie thrives in the media world and in establishing strong relationships with our recruitment advertising partners. Carrie graduated from The University of Delaware and currently lives in New York City. |
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Betsy Rothstein, Editor, mediabistro Washington, D.C. |
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Carmen Scheidel, VP of Education & Events |
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Emily Schwartz, Event Associate |
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Melissa Sumida, Production Assistant |
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Heather Frank Turk, Director of Event Operations |
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Gretchen VanEsselstyn, Managing Producer, Education |
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Trevor Van Woerden, West Coast ad sales representative |
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Neil Vidyarthi, Managing Editor of SocialTimes [send message] Neil has been interested in the cultural an business implications of social graphs since Facebook launched its app store. He has had the pleasure of working with Electronic Arts, Research in Motion, Epson Japan and Level Social, and from those experiences found his true passion: writing. Neil enjoys covering the emerging space of social media and helping writers find their own voices and interests, as well. |
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Skipper Chong Warson, Creative Director |
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Alex Weprin, Senior Editor, TVNewser and SportsNewser |
Some testimonials for mediabistro
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| I think Mediabistro is the best source on the web for media people. Laurel saw what was sorely missing in an industry that is all about contacts and did something about it, and absolutely all of us can appreciate her willingness to help connect people with people. Lucy Banduci CNNfn.com Associate Producer |
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| I've been meaning to call mediabistro and let you know what a fantastic job you've done with it. First off, I've recommended it to a ton of people both as a research and a posting tool. Secondly, as someone who as spent the past eight years hiring editorial types for Random House, I was impressed by the calliber of resumes that I received. I literally had over 100 applicants. Caroline Haberfield Editor-in-Chief Tripology |
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| mediabistro.com is by far the best resource, particularly in the NYC area, for finding good editorial and art people, and we've also had success with other areas as well. Our senior creative managers also use the site for sourcing freelancers regularly. I recommend the site to anyone interested in finding good creative people; there really is no comparable resource. Charlie Gray Director of Recruiting Ziff-Davis Media |
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| I check in with mediabistro every day. I don't even need a job right now, but it's great to see what is out there. Also, I read the Wired article about your site recently, and it was really inspirational to hear how you put all this together. Congratulations, you really have a brilliant site here. Cheers, Chris K., NYC |
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mediabistro.com in the News
Books/guides and other mentions of mediabistro.com
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 "Cybergrrl@Work: Tips and Inspiration for the Professional You," by Aliza Sherman, @ 2001. The book contains over 115 individual stories of women who are using the Internet @ work and in their businesses. |
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| "New York Writers Guide" published by www.iUniverse.com | ||
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| "Internet Cool Guide for 2001" published September 2000 by internet cool guide | ||
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