The Bay Area News Group has named Neil Chase, a veteran journalist and marketer with deep experience in print and digital news, as its executive editor.
Concluding a thorough search, President and Publisher Sharon Ryan announced the appointment Thursday. Ryan said she is gratified to land the sort of newsroom leader BANG needs at this critical juncture: someone who can bridge the print past and digital future of the organization that includes the East Bay Times and EastBayTimes.com, The Mercury News and MercuryNews.com, and 30 weekly print publications.
She said Chase will uphold BANG’s high journalistic standards while exploring new businesses, content platforms and storytelling methods to serve a dynamic Bay Area audience.
“Neil is respectful of our proud history but not shackled to it,” Ryan said. “He is inspired both by the loyal readership we have and the new generation of information consumers we are determined to attract. And he’s willing to reinvent our newsrooms and our news content to provide the underpinnings of a sustainable business that can enlighten the Bay Area for decades to come.”
When he takes the helm on May 2, Chase will lead a multi-award-winning organization of journalists who form the Bay Area’s largest and most productive news team.
Chase, 52, got his start at the San Francisco Examiner, then followed a singular path that took him from a Russian-American newspaper startup to a stint as a professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, to top spots at the business news site MarketWatch.com, The New York Times and Federated Media Publishing, where he explored intersections among journalism, sales and marketing.
For the last three years he has served as a consultant to media and business properties seeking to invigorate content offerings in the digital age.
Chase expressed considerable enthusiasm about the post with BANG, saying the challenge is “certainly what I wanted to do when I grew up.” He described the task ahead as “building on the good journalism we’ve always done while the newsroom leads the innovation that will help us succeed in the 21st century.
“We have to give our readers the information they want and the information they need in ways that make sense to them, whether it’s printed on paper or displayed on a website or it shows up on your watch. In the Bay Area, you can’t just keep up with change. You have to lead it.”
Chase is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where he now chairs the school’s Board for Student Publications. He is married to former magazine publisher Jennifer Dees, and his daughter, Jessica Chase, is studying political science at UCLA.
