Loretta Chao
Head of Startup Studio & Local News Innovation @ American Journalism Project
- Role
- Head of Startup Studio & Local News Innovation at American Journalism Project
- Location
- Queens, NY, US
- LinkedIn followers
- 500 followers
About Loretta Chao
Loretta is a former Wall Street Journal reporter who brings over 20 years of experience in newspapers, digital media, and technology to her work with people and organizations making positive impact. She is currently head of the Startup Studio and local news innovation at the American Journalism Project, leading the establishment and launch of new organizations and working on innovative, sustainable, community-centered local news solutions across the U.S.Loretta joined AJP from VICE Media, where she was director of strategy and operations and oversaw editorial strategy for the company’s first direct-to-consumer subscription product. She also worked on programming for VICE’s experiential business, and execution of new initiatives including its first major live streaming news production. Prior to VICE, Loretta was director of international corporate affairs at e-commerce giant JD.com. She spent 12 years at the WSJ, including as a foreign correspondent in Brazil and China where she won awards for her business and technology coverage.
Experience
Head of Startup Studio & Local News Innovation
Aug 2023 — Present
Lead Startup Studio program, which establishes new, sustainable, nonprofit news organizations aimed at ensuring everyone in their communities have access to critical information• Establish healthy governance and operating structures for startups as the foundation for scalable, lasting civic institutions• Design and lead equitable, inclusive searches for founding executive teams that have resulted in the hiring and development of diverse and innovative leadership teams• Onboard and support startup leadership through successful newsroom launches, including program strategy, organization design, equitable hiring practices, establishment of organizational culture, product and audience strategy, and go-to-market strategy• Created and leading a team that has launched some of the largest local nonprofit news startups, which operate leading-edge community journalism programs that super serve communities traditionally underserved by mainstream media while delivering quality, independent, unbiased journalism to all local audiences; launched newsrooms include Signal Cleveland and Mirror Indy
Education
New York University
Bachelor’s Degree, Journalism, Asian/Pacific/American studies
2001 — 2005
Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality
Certificate, Clinical Sexology
2017
Skills
- Video
- Media Relations
- Editorial
- Journalism
- Newspapers
- E-Commerce
- Social Networking
- Multimedia
- Editing
- Online Journalism
- Writing
- Digital Video
- Blogging
- Storytelling
- New Media
- Social Media
- Digital Media
- Telecommunications
- News Writing
- Video Production
- Breaking News
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