Josh Awtry, SVP Audience Development

Josh Awtry is an editor and audience strategist whose background ranges from leading content strategy at some of the nation's largest media properties to helming small-town local news teams across America. He uses a combination of data insights, team building and old-school journalistic ethics to help media outlets see new pathways to increase the quality of their readership and grow their business.

Awtry leads audience development at Newsweek, where his mission is to deepen the news outlet's relationship with readers, working in conjunction with news and product teams to help Newsweek's millions of readers find the value in the shared mission of Common Ground.

Prior to Newsweek, Awtry led content strategy for the USA TODAY Network and Gannett, where he helped shift the journalism and revenue mix across a network of more than 4,000 journalists to an "impact over activity" model, powering the operation to 1.5 million digital subscribers and a reach of more than 130 million people each month. During his time with the network, he developed a unique national team of content strategists who blended backgrounds as shoe-leather journalists with advanced data science skills to predict and react to readership trends and train journalists accordingly. He has also served as Senior Vice President of Audience at The Hill, where he helped the nonpartisan news outlet reach a record high for the amount of time readers spend with The Hill each month.

Awtry's background is in community news, a craft he's deeply passionate about preserving and continues work on today. He got his start as a night-shift copy editor at the Grand Island Independent in Central Nebraska and has since served in newsrooms across the country, leading teams from Nebraska to Utah, Idaho, Colorado and the Carolinas.