mernit-susan-web

Susan Mernit

Editor/Publisher, Oakland Local

@susanmernit

Susan Mernit is editor & publisher of Oakland Local (oaklandlocal.com) a news & community hub for Oakland, CA focused on social justice issues that combines reported stories with community media & diverse voices and training to bridge the digital divide. A former VP at AOL & Netscape, & a former Yahoo Senior Director, Mernit was consulting program manager for The Knight News Challenge, 2008-09 and is a 2012 Stanford Carlos McClatchy Fellow. She has consulted with many non-profit organizations on strategy, product development and social media/engagement, including Salon.com, TechSoup Global, Public Radio International and the Institute for Policy Studies/Economic Hardship Reporting Project, led by Barbara Ehrenreich. She is a circuit rider for The Knight Community Information Challenge, a former Senior Fellow for the Reporting on Health project at USC and a facilitator for The Knight Digital Media Center at The Annenberg School of Journalism, USC. In 2011, she launched Code for Oakland (codeforoakland.org), a one-day tech event focused on building apps to serve Oakland community.
Mernit is passionate about local media, publishing platforms, web and placed-based digital training, and Oakland. She is super interested in how tech and civic engagement amplify both social change and economic development and is trying to put some of her ideas to work in Oakland, CA

Sessions

  • Thursday, 1:00 pm
    Bayview A

    News Entrepreneuring 4.0

    For the fourth year in a row, J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, presents a half-day of conference workshop that focuses on the specific challenges confronting entrepreneurial news start-ups.

  • Thursday, 1:15 pm
    Bayview A

    The Art of the Close

    Journalists are great at producing content and covering stories. Ask them to sell an ad, though, and generally they can’t close the deal.

  • Thursday, 4:30 pm
    Bayview A

    Entrepreneurial Pop-Ups

    Have a challenge? Work with our presenters for one-on-one consults in which they lend their expertise to help you solve your biggest struggle.

  • Friday, 2:15 pm
    Bayview A-B

    Real Metrics: Grow and Manage Your Numbers

    In this hands-on, real-case workshop, find out how to use Google Analytics to build a 12-month growth plan, how to work with metrics to focus your editorial, and how to manage and evaluate your referral traffic.