Tuesday, July 9, 2024

Civic News Company names Shani O. Hilton new Editor in Chief, Andrew Golis new Chief Operating Officer

Media Executives who led LA Times, BuzzFeed News, WNYC, and Vox join as Nonprofit Positions for Growth

Civic News Company, the nonprofit news publisher of Chalkbeat and Votebeat, today named Shani O. Hilton as its next Editor in Chief and Andrew Golis as its new Chief Operating Officer.

Hilton previously held executive leadership positions at the Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed News, serving as managing editor and senior vice president at the Los Angeles Times and vice president of news and programming at BuzzFeed News. At the Los Angeles Times, she led newsroom innovation and the LA Times Studio, and at BuzzFeed News, she built and led a 200-person award-winning newsroom. Under her leadership, the Los Angeles Times received its first Academy Award for the short documentary “The Last Repair Shop” in 2024.

Golis previously served as chief content officer of WNYC and vice president at Vox Media. At WNYC, he oversaw the local newsroom and radio programming, and developed award-winning national programming like “Dolly Parton’s America” and “Blindspot.” At Vox Media, he guided the development of new programming like the podcast “Today, Explained” and the Netflix show “Explained” while leading collaboration between the editorial and revenue teams across the Vox Media portfolio.

“Shani and Andrew could both work anywhere they want in media,” said Civic News Company CEO Elizabeth Green. “We are incredibly fortunate that, for their next chapters, they are choosing to work here, on the problem we put first: delivering the highest quality local news about the most important civic topics to the communities that need it most.”

"I’ve been a fan of Civic for years, and I have been consistently inspired by Elizabeth’s leadership and by the detailed and careful work the staff has done as they document the way this country works,” Hilton said. “Years in media have taught me that things get better when people feel engaged in their communities and when they understand how they can make a difference — not when they’re overwhelmed by how bad things are. Joining the team in telling that story is an exciting new chapter in my career.”

"Joining this organization, in this role, working on solving this problem in media and in our communities just feels right,” Golis said. “There is no bigger crisis in journalism than the collapsing economic support for and community connection with truth-seeking local journalism. And Civic’s model of supporting subject-matter experts deeply embedded in communities drives impact that can be sustained and scaled. I’m thrilled to join Elizabeth, Shani, and the rest of the team on this work.”

Hilton previously served on Civic News Company’s board of directors.

Civic News Company is the publisher of nonprofit newsrooms Chalkbeat, Votebeat, and the forthcoming public-health vertical Healthbeat, which will launch later this summer in partnership with KFF Health News.

Founded in 2014, the organization has raised over $80 million during its 10-year history, including $14.7 million in fiscal year 2024. Civic News Company has a team of 80, including a newsroom of 50, with local Chalkbeat bureaus covering education in New York City, Colorado, Memphis, Indianapolis, Chicago, Detroit, Newark, and Philadelphia; and a Votebeat presence covering election administration and voting in Arizona, Texas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Healthbeat will launch later this summer to cover public health in New York City and Atlanta.

Civic News Company’s award-winning journalism has spurred changes in education and election funding, legislation, and policy, and is regularly cited or republished in hundreds of publications. In 2023, the organization led the publication of “The Roadmap for Local News,” a report arguing for a shift from “saving local journalism” to providing for the civic information needs of communities — and heralding the emergence of a new generation of civic media leaders poised to meet those needs.

Civic News Company was founded by its chief executive officer, Elizabeth Green, author of the 2014 New York Times bestseller Building a Better Teacher. In 2019, she co-founded the American Journalism Project, the first venture philanthropy firm dedicated to local news, and served as chair of its board of directors for its first two years.

The Civic News Company board of directors includes Gideon Stein, president of Moriah Fund; Karen Wishart, EVP and Chief Administrative Officer at Urban One; Ann Sardini, President and Founder, In Progress Advisors; Kang-Xing Jin, former VP and Head of Health at Meta; Jill Barkin, Director at The Beacon Fund; Roberto Yanez, Jr., President and Regional General Manager, TelevisaUnivision; David Rousseau, VP and Executive Director at KFF; and Rebecca Van Dyck, former COO at Meta Reality Labs.