The Work

Rewriting the mission. The first and most important step was changing how the organization understood itself. The Banner's founding mission was to be "an indispensable resource that strengthens, unites, and inspires our Baltimore community." That framing made regional expansion feel like a departure from the mission. I worked to reframe the mission toward being "the most essential and compelling source of news in Maryland" — a self-sustaining enterprise that serves a broad and growing audience of Marylanders for many years to come. That shift changed how the entire newsroom thought about its work.

Data before decisions. Before moving a single reporter, I deployed an audience survey and commissioned a full analytics audit to understand what readers in the target counties actually wanted. The answer wasn't just "more news." It was specific: breaking news, crime, education, food, housing, and urban development — topics that intersect regional relevance with reader need.

Rebuilding the pitch system. I implemented a new editorial pitch framework across the regional team that required reporters to answer three questions before every story: Who is the audience? Why do they care? What is the potential impact? This simple change transformed how the team selected and framed stories — from coverage-for-coverage's-sake to coverage that served a specific reader need.

Structural realignment. I officially took over regional news in October 2024, onboarded a new regional editor, moved topical beats like transportation and environment to the regional team, and launched the inaugural Baltimore County headlines newsletter. I also deployed "roaming regional" reporters whose mandate was to find "relentlessly interesting" stories across the coverage area — not just attend meetings.

Brand built for scale. Alongside the editorial strategy, I oversaw the development of a regional brand system that gave each Maryland coverage area its own visual identity while keeping the Banner brand cohesive. Each region got its own color — named after Baltimore and Maryland landmarks — and its own logo treatment. It was a brand system built to scale.

Howard County as the test case.

Rather than expanding everywhere at once, I built a focused pilot in Howard County. This included a 12-week integrated marketing campaign, a coverage increase of 57% in county-specific articles, a new regional reporter hire, and the launch of a dedicated Howard County newsletter on September 19, 2024. The first edition got a 50% open rate.

The Howard County campaign results:

• 13 million local impressions — 7x the normal baseline

• 20,000 newsletter signups

• Brand awareness grew to 48% in the county

• Web traffic up 36% vs. flat for other regions

• Email signups up 72% vs. 28% for other regions

• Paid subscribers up 14% vs. 4% for other regions

The Outcome

By the time I left The Baltimore Banner in September 2025, the organization had grown to 62,000 paid digital subscribers, well exceeding the original targets. Baltimore County traffic had reached an all-time high of 102,000 monthly users by October 2024, up from essentially nothing at launch. The Banner was recognized as Maryland's leading news source and one of the fastest-growing nonprofit newsrooms in the country.

The regional expansion wasn't just an editorial decision. It was the business decision that made sustainability possible.