JustGo Product Manager & Editor
Software: HTML, BBEdit, FrontPage, Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Illustrator
Description: I got a call from an old friend of mine at the Beacon Journal. They were going to launch an Arts & Entertainment section called JustGo on their site. It was a company-wide (Knight-Ridder) website and each of the chain newspapers were going to be adding a JustGo component to their sites. He wanted to know if I was interested in coming back to Akron to launch it.
I went to interview and realized what a great opportunity it was, so I took it. I became the Just Go Product Manager, which meant that I would do all the coordinating and planning for the launch, which included designing everything from the logo to the site as well as all the branding and even some of the advertising. I handled marketing and worked out the strategy for the search engine we partnered with. We worked with Zip.com and I set up the categories and zip codes for our target area, using Microsoft Access. I also had weekly conference calls with all the other Just Go editors at other newspapers, where we shared and coordinated coverage. I designed a movie website that all the other editors linked to and after the launch, I set up the coding for the Beacon Journal stories to automatically populate the site’s database. Also after the launch, I designed and maintained the site until the automation worked.
Because we were such a small operation, I got to work on many other things that came up. I designed a Home & Garden Show website and an Online Charity website for the paper. We also had to do a special in-house presentation on our department for the rest of the newspaper departments. I came up with the concept and the method in which we could accomplish it and I spearheaded the project, called Mission Possible. I left this job when Knight-Ridder decided they were restructuring and Just Go would be incorporated into a 24-hour news desk out in San Jose. Around the same time, I got an offer from The Washington Post, my dream paper.
Client: Ohio.com
Year: 1998