Today, the National Trust for Local News owns and operates 64 community newspapers across Maine, Colorado, and Georgia – 64 vibrant and dynamic news brands that are sustained by the places they serve. We serve nearly 40 counties and some five million people, and every one of our properties is a critical source of community news.
In stark contrast to gloomy headlines about the news industry, we are expanding our audiences, unlocking efficiencies of scale, and growing and diversifying our revenue base. And we’re reinvesting it all into the vital community reporting that our newsrooms do every day.
This is phenomenal momentum that we aim to sustain in 2024 and beyond. Every community deserves its stories. There’s so much to do to meet that mission, both within our current states and far beyond them.
To do it, we need a creative and expert team that works closely with our State Trust management to drive modernization, growth, and sustainability. Today, we are taking a giant leap forward toward that goal with the appointments of Amalie Nash, Orlando Comas, and Rodney Gibbs.
Amalie Nash joins us as Head of Transformation. She will work closely with State Trust management teams to develop, execute, and measure transformation strategies across the Portfolio, with a special emphasis on tying those strategies back to our journalistic impact. Over a 25-year career in local news, Amalie has held senior editorial leadership positions at the Detroit Free Press and the Des Moines Register. Most recently, she served as SVP for Local News and Audience Development at Gannett, where she managed 250 newsrooms across the country. Amalie has been a senior advisor to the National Trust for some time, where she has helped achieve consequential results for our Colorado properties.
Orlando Comas joins us as Head of Advertising. He will be a pivotal working partner to our State Trust management teams, driving advertising revenue growth and positioning our advertising force to win as much business as possible. Orlando has more than two decades of digital publishing experience, serving in a wide array of roles during a distinguished career at Knight-Ridder and McClatchy. He has been an innovator in digital advertising since 2001 and most recently held the position of Vice President of Advertising at the Miami Herald. Orlando also has extensive experience supporting digital transformation in communities of all sizes, from Olympia, Wash. to State College, Penn.
Rodney Gibbs joins us as Head of Product and Audience. He will lead the Trust's product innovation, artificial intelligence strategy, and audience development efforts. Rodney spent nearly a decade with The Texas Tribune as its first Chief Product Officer. During his tenure, he spearheaded the Tribune’s Revenue Lab, helping news organizations nationwide in discovering new revenue streams and expanding their audiences. An active member of the digital journalism community, Rodney is in his third term on the board of the Online News Association; he co-chairs its 2024 Online Journalism Awards; and he’s a member of the AI Journalism Lab at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
We are thrilled to have Amalie, Orlando, and Rodney on the National Trust team. In addition to their deep experience and unwavering commitment to mission, they embody the sober practicality, audacious optimism, and humble, collaborative spirit that progress in our industry demands.
Please join us in celebrating this significant milestone for the National Trust!
