Jason Seiken

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Jason Seiken is a British-American media executive known for launching the online edition of The Washington Post, PBS' digital output, and the Telegraph Media Group. A dual citizen of the United States and United Kingdom, he was the first American to run the newsroom of a major British newspaper. His brief tenure as editor-in-chief of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph was considered controversial. [1]

Contents

Early life

Seiken attended Union College in Schenectady, NY and then went on to Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Career

Seiken started his career as a newspaper reporter, columnist, and editor at the Schenectady Gazette (New York) and then at the Quincy Patriot Ledger (Massachusetts). In 1993, Seiken was one of 12 journalists in the United States to be awarded the John S. Knight Fellowship at Stanford University. Seiken serves on the Knight Fellowship Board of Visitors. [2]

The Washington Post

In 1994, Seiken was hired to lead The Washington Post’s digital team and rose to become editor-in-chief of The Post’s digital subsidiary. Seiken subsequently hired and led the team that launched washingtonpost.com. At launch, the site was praised by the Philadelphia Inquirer who compared it to Michael Kinsley’s digital magazine Slate. [3]

The Washington Post website included several industry innovations. It was the first newspaper site to update around the clock; the first to include significant non-newspaper content such as the first chapters of books; and the first to devote significant resources to creating online community that gave users a voice. [4]

AOL

In 1997, Seiken joined AOL. [5] In early 2001, he transferred to London to head programming for AOL UK and, later, AOL Europe.

PBS

In 2006, Seiken returned to the United States as senior vice president and general manager for digital at the Public Broadcasting Service. [6] Under Seiken, PBS Digital launched a series of products including an iPad app, [7] and a video platform. [8] [9]

During Seiken's time at PBS, the station expanded into online video content. [10] Seiken formed PBS Digital Studios, which began producing educational but edgy videos. [11] The studio’s first hit, an auto-tuned version of the TV classic Mr Roger’s Neighborhood, was YouTube’s 10th most viral video of 2012 having been shared 1,045,039 times. [12] By Seiken's final year at PBS, monthly video views on PBS.org had risen from 2 million to 225 million views per month and PBS had won more 2013 Webby Awards than any other media company in the world. [13]

The Daily Telegraph

In October 2013, Seiken became the digital executive and editor-in-chief of The Telegraph in its London office. Seiken's appointment as a digital executive and editor was controversial. Coverage in other Fleet Street newspapers emphasized that Seiken was an American with no previous experience at British newspapers [14]

In early 2014, Seiken laid out his vision for The Telegraph in a series of speeches to staff that were well-received by a section of staff responding anonymously. [15] In public speeches and interviews, Seiken said journalism was entering a “golden age” [16] of better news gathering tools, such as databases and drones, and emerging technologies to present news, such as virtual reality. [17] These speeches became the subject of derision in rival British newspapers, for “talking about drones" and Private Eye afforded him the name 'Psycho Seiken' [18]

Seiken had early success in boosting The Telegraph's web and mobile traffic, largely through clickbait. [19] [20] He presided over a controversial series of staff reductions and was criticized for laying off experienced print journalists. [21]

A year after his appointment, Seiken was moved from his editorial role to a strategic role. [22] He stepped down the following year. [23]

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References

  1. ↑ Preston, Peter (5 April 2015). "Jason Seiken's digital wizardry didn't boost the Telegraph's numbers". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  2. ↑ "Jason Seiken" . Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  3. ↑ "Washington Post's Web Site a Tour de Force Compared to Slate.(Originated from The Philadelphia Inquirer)". 30 June 1996. Archived from the original on 8 October 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2018.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ↑ "Transcript - High Stakes In Cyberspace - FRONTLINE - PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  5. ↑ "American Journalism Review". ajrarchive.org. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  6. ↑ O'Carroll, Lisa (11 September 2013). "How Jason Seiken, new Telegraph editor-in-chief, reinvented PBS". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  7. ↑ "PBS for iPad streams prime-time shows for free". 27 October 2010. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  8. ↑ "PBS takes a big leap forward in online video and reaches a much younger audience". 22 April 2009. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  9. ↑ "PBS.org's New Video Page: Hulu for the Tote-Bag Set". 23 April 2009. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  10. ↑ "GMs take up PBS plan to expand web video output". 29 May 2012. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  11. ↑ "Why PBS Autotuned Mr. Rogers". Digiday . 23 October 2012. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  12. ↑ "The 10 Most Viral Ads Of 2012". Business Insider . Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  13. ↑ "How PBS Won at Digital - Digiday". 18 June 2013. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  14. ↑ Mance, Henry (21 January 2014). "'Telegraph' editor Gallagher sacked over move away from newsprint" . Financial Times . Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  15. ↑ Greenslade, Roy (6 February 2014). "Seiken wins over Telegraph journalists as he plots its digital future". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  16. ↑ Lambert, Harry. "The Big Question: 'How will gaming change in the next ten years?'". Wired UK. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  17. ↑ Newsworks (11 April 2014). "Jason Seiken - Where we are heading" . Retrieved 20 September 2018– via YouTube.
  18. ↑ Media Monkey (14 December 2014). "Media Monkey looks ahead to what's in store for the industry in 2015". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  19. ↑ Sweney, Mark (1 August 2014). "Facebook and fewer stories behind rise in web traffic, says Telegraph chief". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  20. ↑ Greenslade, Roy (15 September 2014). "Telegraph's Jason Seiken finds online reasons to be cheerful". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  21. ↑ Greenslade, Roy; Halliday, Josh (18 June 2014). "Telegraph axes former deputy editor in shift towards digital". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  22. ↑ Burrell, Ian (27 October 2014). "High sales. Big profits. Rising user numbers. So why the turmoil at the Telegraph?". The Independent. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  23. ↑ "Editor-in-chief leaves Daily Telegraph after 18 months" . Financial Times. 2 April 2015. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
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