The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY is excited to welcome Carla Zanoni as our new director of the M.A. in Engagement Journalism, a degree program that prepares graduates to work at the intersection of news products, audience development, and journalism innovation in order to rebuild trust in news.
Zanoni is a media leader with two decades of experience across audience, product, and news entrepreneurship. Most recently, she served as the first head of audience, marketing and analytics for TED, shaping the organization’s membership, marketing and engagement initiatives. Zanoni was also The Wall Street Journal’s first global audience and analytics editor, as well as the first Latina to be named to the newspaper’s masthead.
In the early aughts, Zanoni helped launch the newspaper that became City and State — the first of its kind devoted to New York city and state level politics and policy. Her career is rooted in entrepreneurial local journalism. She launched a successful neighborhood blog in 2007, bringing independent reporting to the underreported neighborhoods of Washington Heights and Inwood. She joined the founding team at DNAinfo New York and Chicago as a reporter and social media and engagement editor helping to lead the organization, growing and deepening relationships with the communities they served.
“I am thrilled to have Carla guide one of our two master’s programs,” said Dean Graciela Mochkofsky. “Her deep understanding of the news industry, her passion for journalism as public service and her strategic mindset will undoubtedly help us bring this very important program to its next level.”
A poet and writer, Zanoni is committed to attracting and growing a new group of innovators to the field through new outreach methods and recruitment. “I believe there is a world of qualified would-be journalists waiting for us to invite them in as collaborators and new leaders,” she said.
She’ll start right away, overseeing the curriculum for engagement journalism, mentoring current and new students, and working closely with faculty, staff, and Associate Dean Allison Lichter to grow the program. She’ll also work with Newmark’s Entrepreneur in Residence, Darryl Holliday.
“I’ll be guiding this next generation of journalists, focusing on crucial skills for the future of media: audience engagement, community building, product development, and entrepreneurship,” Zanoni said. “This truly feels like a homecoming, an opportunity to harness the different media experiences I’ve accumulated over 20 years in the industry.”