Mashable's Jessica Coen heads to Morning Brew as content chief
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Mashable editor-in-chief Jessica Coen is joining Morning Brew as chief content officer, Axios has learned. She will report to CEO Austin Rief.
Why it matters: She's the latest high-profile hire for Morning Brew, which has added dozens of new people since Insider purchased a majority stake in the outlet last fall.
The big picture: The company, which launched in 2017, has been focused mostly on newsletters, but it is starting to branch out as it grows. Today, it has more than 100 people, up from about 60 six months ago.
- Coen rounds out Morning Brew's editorial leadership team. The company has in the past six months hired several key editors from places like Fortune, Vice Media, Adweek and Hearst.
Details: A longtime tech editor, Coen will lead the publication's expansion into new business lines, like events, video, audio and service journalism.
- Morning Brew is planning its first slate of original video series, Coen says. It's exploring different business models to support video, which could one day include licensing its intellectual property for a streaming series.
- It's also looking to beef up its podcasting efforts, and focus more on storytelling on social channels and original features.
- Coen says the company will continue to focus on original analysis of business news, but will also try to expand more broadly into guidance-driven service journalism via things like explainers, how-to guides and recommendations.
- "Newsletters will always be Morning Brew's foundational product," Coen told Axios, but the company is trying to expand its reach as its audience grows.
- Verticals that Morning Brew is investing more in include work, lifestyle, money, innovation, digital culture and the creator economy.
Catch up quick: Coen has been the editor-in-chief at Mashable, a tech-focused news site, for more than four years.
- She was previously a top editor at various news and media companies, including Jezebel, Gawker, Vocativ, New York Magazine and Vanity Fair.
The bottom line: "Morning Brew is becoming a top media company as it branches outside of business," Coen said. "It uniquely captures and shares the voice of its audience ... That's a very valuable thing and I'm not going to sacrifice that."
