Aron Pilhofer

Director, News Catalyst

Twitter: @philhofer
Aron Pilhofer is director of News Catalyst, a two-year, $2 million project to help local news organizations build better products, drive revenue and become sustainable digital businesses.

News Catalyst provides tools and training, fosters collaboration and promotes experimentation within the news industry. We have helped local newsrooms find better tools; helped small newsrooms become more product focused; and co-created SRCCON:Product, the first-ever conference for product and news.

Aron also is the James B. Steele Chair in Journalism Innovation at Temple University. In addition to teaching, his work focuses on business models, digital transformation and new forms of storytelling.

Before to joining Temple, Pilhofer was Executive Editor, Digital, and interim Chief Digital Officer at the Guardian in London. In the newsroom, he was responsible for visual journalism — including pictures, graphics, interactive and data journalism. As CDO, he led the Guardian’s 200-person product, technology, UX and engineering teams.

Prior to joining the Guardian, Aron was Associate Managing Editor for Digital Strategy and editor of Interactive News at The New York Times. He was responsible for helping develop and execute the newsroom’s approach to technology, new product, analytics, interactives and social media.

Prior to The New York Times, Aron was database editor at the Center for Public Integrity in Washington. Before working at the Center, Aron was on the national training staff of Investigative Reporters and Editors and worked for a number of years as a statehouse and projects reporter for Gannett newspapers in New Jersey and Delaware.

Aron also co-founded two news-related startups: DocumentCloud.org and Hacks & Hackers.