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Rachel F. Elson Brooklyn New York relson@gmail.com 415-336-5262 mobile Editorial experience Education Technology skills Story archive		Editorial experience Managing editor, CBS MoneyWatch, New York -- June 2009 to present Serve as No. 2 editor since launch of new CBS business/finance Web site. Content development: Recruit writers, edit articles and packages on a range of money- and finance-related topics. Content promotion: Use a variety of levers, from headline modules and newsletters to social media and partner relationships, to steadily ratchet up MoneyWatch traffic. First year and a half's progress: from 211K UUs/500K PVs to c 2.3M UUs/6M PVs. Product development: Represent editorial team in conversations with product management, resulting in an ongoing stream of site enhancements - home page adjustments, navigation changes, improved art use, slideshows and more. Social media: Took over MW social media efforts in late 2010. Tripled Twitter followers (from an admittedly small base) to c. 7,300 in first six months; increased Facebook fans from 1,700 to 10,800 in first eight months. Outside relationships: Work with major portals and other sites to get MoneyWatch content featured on MSN Money, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo Shine and more. Blogger management: Work with MoneyWatch's team of Saving & Spending bloggers - part coach, part mentor, part den mother. Saving/Spending bloggers consistently have top page views on the site. Editorial calendar: Collaborate with editorial team to ensure a steady flow of content on the site. News editor, MSN Money, New York -- April 2006 to May 2009 Program and develop guidelines for the Money module on MSN.com, increasing traffic from 8 million in March 2006 to 35 million in March 2009. Help MSN Money maximize unique users, page views and revenue with a compelling mix of content. Work with MSN home page team to acquire more premium placements for strong content from MSN Money channel, and with Money team to strengthen content offerings to appeal to home page readership. Increased traffic from editorial placements from a steady 10 million to 11 million in 2005-2006 to an average 16.8 million in the six months ending March 2009. Help develop MSN Money's award-winning multimedia team. Recruit writers, work with writers and producers to delineate story ideas and edit the content featured here. (Our first series out of the gate, "Keeping Up with the Wangs," won a 2008 Loeb Award as well as a "Best in Business" award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers; our "Middle-Class Crunch" series won the 2009 Loeb Award for Online.) Overall the 221 multimedia stories generated 175 million page views and 13 million streams to video and multimedia graphics. Edited daily stock-market commentary, Market Dispatches, developing a strong voice and a growing audience, with monthly page views rising from 2.4 million in March 2006 to 9 million in March 2009. Home page editor, MSN.com, New York -- October 2004 to October 2005 Helped coordinate daily home page coverage of news and feature stories, updating as needed to provide a page that both satisfied and increased readership and met advertising sales commitments. Programmed MSN.com's Entertainment and Video modules. Over the course of a year, boosted Video traffic roughly three-fold and increased Entertainment traffic amid growing content restrictions. Worked with partners in content "channels" (eg Entertainment, Video, Dating & Personals) to help them strengthen content offerings. Analyzed user data to bolster site performance. Developed coverage plans for major events. Freelance writer/editor, San Francisco/New York -- September 1994 to present Report and write features on business, travel and culture for various publications, including Newsweek.com, People.com, Budget Living, Budget Travel, New York Post, Time Out New York, Washington Post, Salon.com, San Francisco Chronicle, and Family Life. (See story archive for examples.) Edited the monthly Fodors.com travel newsletter -- assigning and editing stories and working with writers, artists, producers and Fodors.com management. Edit and proofread copy for a variety of media clients, including the New York Post, Compass American Guides, Mother Jones and Salon.com. Provide editorial services for a variety of corporate clients, in fields including software, health care and energy, for both online and print publications. Business weekend editor/copy editor, New York Post, New York -- August 2002 to July 2004 Supervised Monday business section -- directing coverage of breaking news; managing reporters and copy editors and coordinating with other editorial departments; editing articles for content and clarity; developing photo and art ideas. Throughout the rest of the week: track breaking news; edit articles; develop and manage art concepts; write headlines and captions; paginate news pages. Collaborate on tight daily deadlines with a department of 15-20 staffers. Senior editor, Tradeweave Insight magazine, San Francisco -- December 1999 to December 2001 Built online apparel/retail industry magazine from scratch, finding proprietary columnists and high-profile strategic partners to contribute broad, deep coverage of the industry, from high fashion to mass market. Recruited, retained, developed and managed almost a dozen freelance contributors, covering a range of subjects. Developed writers' voices, column styles and beats, leading them to new sources and new angles. Shepherded site through badly needed redesign, working with artists, developers, site operations staff and marketing team to create a look, feel and robust site that satisfied customer ease-of-use and navigability needs, solved production problems and complied with corporate brand integrity. Initiated and spearheaded syndication and promotion efforts to get Tradeweave Insight stories in front of a broader audience; convinced Yahoo to link to Tradeweave Insight almost daily from its "Full Coverage" fashion news channel and brought monthly page views from zero to more than 500,000. Wrote daily weblog highlighting the best retail and fashion industry coverage elsewhere on the Web, providing links, summaries, context and commentary. Letters editor/copy editor, Salon.com, San Francisco -- 1999 Fielded incoming reader response, and organized and edited the items to create a daily "Letters" section. Promoted the section within Salon.com to gain more prominence on the site when the section included high-profile letter-writers like Roger Ebert and Camille Paglia. Over the course of nine months, increased Letters page views faster than overall Salon.com page views. Copy edited articles in a variety of departments, on topics ranging from multi-player gaming to Middle East politics to anti-depressant side effects, working closely with editors and contributors to meet daily deadlines. Auxiliary editor, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco -- June 1997 to March 1999 Edited articles -- from first drafts to final proofs -- for both news and business desks of daily newspaper. Tracked breaking news, pulling and editing stories for publication, frequently on edition. Dummied and proofread pages; wrote headlines and captions on deadline. Copy editor (part-time), The Recorder, San Francisco -- June 1996 to June 1997 Copy edited articles, wrote headlines and captions for Steven Brill-owned San Francisco legal daily newspaper. Scanned Associated Press wire daily, culling and editing material for use in the paper. Arts editor, The Hungarian Times, Budapest -- 1993 Developed arts section from scratch for weekly English-language newspaper. Researched and wrote arts and lifestyle articles, including reviews, features and profiles. Trained, managed and edited local freelance writers. Freelance writer/editor, Budapest -- September 1992 to April 1994 Edited scripts and video segments for "Central Express," an internationally televised newsmagazine focused on current events and issues in Central Europe. Wrote business, arts and general-interest articles for various Budapest English-language publications, including Budapest Week and Budapest Sun. Wrote, edited and broadcast news items for English-language program at Hungarian Radio. Education University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Graduated cum laude with general honors. B.A. in communications, minor in English literature. Technology skills Programs used: Windows 2000 suite, Mac OS, Quark, various content management systems and text editors, Photoshop. Other skills: Information architecture development; Internet research; some HTML. Return to top of page