The Wall Street Journal’s video department will be led by five senior leaders announced in a memo on Thursday from Amanda Wills, the newspaper’s head of video.
“As we enter into an exciting new year of growth for video, I wanted to take a moment to spell out the senior leadership team that will be essential to our success,” Wills said in a statement on parent company Dow Jones’ site.
The team will be comprised of Vaughn Sterling (senior executive producer, features and explainers); Ben Weltman (deputy head of video); Adam Banicki (senior executive producer of YouTube); Christina Vallice (senior executive producer); Joanna Stern (executive editor, video, and senior personal technology columnist); and Dan Rosen (VP of video and audio strategy and studios).
Three-time Emmy winner Sterling, who starts Jan. 23, is backfilling in Banicki’s former role and was part of the founding show team for The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, was in the control room during 9/11 and produced seven major election nights. He also produced Cuomo Prime Time and Democracy in Peril.
As deputy head of video, Weltman’s duties expand beyond editorial, as he will oversee all production, operations and finance for the department. Wills said this team will be marked as “one of shared resources, stretching across the department to help us manage teams and projects.”
Vallice’s role will “oversee all news production, international teams and specials.” By International under her purview “will also allow us to connect our teams when it comes to story assignments and execution,” Wills wrote. “It is crucial we become faster, nimble and more creative in this highly competitive space,” she added.
Banicki’s will formulate and execute on WSJ’s plan for YouTube, according to Wills, who explained the aim to “truly focus on this platform in a way that The Wall Street Journal has never done before. His team, much of which he is currently building from scratch, will focus on building our YouTube presence and developing repeatable franchises that I hope catapults WSJ into becoming a major publisher on this platform.”
As VP of Video and Audio Strategy and Studio, Rosen is tasked with refining WSJ’s audience reach and growth strategies. “By combining programming with audience strategy, we will be able to effectively measure, execute and tell the story of success when it comes to video on and off platform and build a long-term strategy around this. Dan will also continue his strategy work with the Audio team, WSJ Studios, and managing newsroom relationships with outside vendors,” Wills wrote.
