James Ku

About James Ku

I’m a Senior Product Manager with deep experience in news and media, focused on how people discover and consume trusted content across web and mobile.At Al Jazeera, I have led product work across three major areas- Analytics & experimentation: I product‑manage our BI and experimentation stack (Amplitude + GA4), define key events and dashboards, and help teams turn complex behavioral data into clear product direction. I introduced a structured A/B testing practice where none existed, enabling data‑informed decisions about features, UX, and content surfacing- Website platform & UX: I led a major rebuild of AlJazeera.com, from front‑end UX to back‑end platform modernization, improving content discovery, cross‑platform news consumption, and editorial workflows across multiple sites and languages- Accessibility & quality: I served as PM for the initiative that brought AlJazeera.com into WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, partnering with Deque and training engineering and QA to bake accessibility into ongoing development.Previously, as Managing Editor – Digital at the Reno Gazette Journal (Gannett), I owned digital performance for RGJ.com, grew it into a top‑20 traffic site across the company, and built data‑driven practices around analytics, SEO, newsletters, and social—supporting how local audiences engaged with our journalism on web and mobile.Across roles, I work closely with engineering, design, editorial, and BI partners. I’m comfortable creating structure in ambiguous spaces, finding signal in noisy data, and pushing for high‑quality, trustworthy experiences in content products.

Experience

1. Senior Product Manager

   Al Jazeera Media Network

   Jul 2019 — Present · US

   Lead end-to-end product initiatives for AlJazeera.com and supporting analytics platforms, spanning website experience, accessibility, and data/experimentation capabilities across multiple sites and languages.BI, Analytics & Experimentation- Led the BI team to deliver a product analytics and experimentation stack using Amplitude, alongside existing GA360/GA4- Worked with engineering to instrument key events and build core dashboards for user behavior and feature performance used by product and editorial teams for both site and mobile consumption decisions- Introduced a structured A/B testing process where none existed, enabling data‑informed roadmap and feature decisions for content and UX across platforms.Website Platform & UX- Led end‑to‑end product delivery of a revamped AlJazeera.com, overseeing front‑end and back‑end work to improve UX, content discovery, and pathways that support cross‑platform (web and mobile) consumption- Partnered with engineering, design and editorial to align requirements, prioritize features and deliver a unified experience across multiple sites- Drove back-end platform changes that standardized development and modernized editorial tools, streamlining production workflows.Accessibility & Inclusive Experience- Served as PM for the initiative that brought AlJazeera.com into WCAG 2.1 AA compliance- Learned accessibility requirements, defined product needs and coordinated implementation with engineering and QA- Selected and managed Deque as accessibility partner to audit and validate efforts, and trained engineers and QA to sustain accessibility practices.Third-Party Tools & Adoption- Owned strategy and adoption for vendor tools including Chartbeat, Tubular, Emplifi, Newswhip and Dataminr- Evaluated underused tools and created training and documentation to increase active usage across teams.

Skills

• Content Management
• Photos
• Editorial
• Multimedia
• Newspapers
• Feature Articles
• Social Media
• Journalism