Neil Budde has joined DailyMe Inc. as president and chief product officer. Learn more.
His statement:
I’m thrilled to be joining the talented DailyMe team because it truly embodies the kind of innovation and customer focus that I’ve long championed and believe is needed to define the future of news consumption and business success in digital media.
When I joined Yahoo! News after a decade of building The Wall Street Journal Online, many people would ask how the two jobs compared. I think most were surprised when I’d say that my job at each place had more similarities than differences. Really, they’d wonder: How could the job be the same at the subscription-based, business-oriented Journal, with its own team of top-notch journalists, and at the free, ad-supported, general interest Yahoo! News, which aggregated content from many sources but was largely built on wire stories? In both cases, I viewed my job as understanding the needs and interests of news consumers and translating them into the most useful and engaging news experience possible. We had to constantly work to keep pace with changes in technology as well as user behavior and needs. And we had to find appropriate ways for advertisers to reach this engaged audience.
In some ways, I could argue that the job was more challenging at Yahoo! News. The Journal had exclusive access to some of the best news reporting; it had a natural audience among businesspeople and investors, who depended on up-to-the-second news and in-depth information for their decision making. Yahoo! News was based on content that was widely available on many online news sites; the mass audience at Yahoo! had more diverse interests and its news needs were generally shallower. So, it was imperative that we build a great news product that met users needs.
DailyMe has an even larger goal. Like others, we are and will be licensing and aggregating news content that is often available elsewhere, though with a focus on partnerships with leading sources. Without a built-in traffic driver, we must win over new, regular users by convincing you that we do understand your needs and continually are working to meet them through a combination of technology, smart design and editorial skill. As a lean startup, we can move quickly to adapt to what we learn from you as we work to create the best place to discover, consume, share and participate with the news that interests you across all digital platforms. And that is why I believe the opportunities here are so huge.
I believe that we are still at the early stages of digital news consumption. The ways in which users like you will find, read or watch and interact with news are still evolving and no single approach to meeting your needs will suffice. Being totally focused on translating your needs and interests into an amazing product will make DailyMe the best news destination and a great partner in the news industry.
I look forward to hearing from you about how you think we can make DailyMe even better. I’ll be reading all the comments you offer via feedback@dailyme.com, our feedback mailbox, or you can reach me at any of the options listed below.
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