The Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) is excited to announce that Matt Sullivan will assume the new role of the director of operations, supporting the new collaborative nonprofit newsroom, Spotlight Delaware.
In the new role, Sullivan will oversee the daily operations of both LJI and Spotlight Delaware, ensuring that the organization’s strategic goals are achieved with precision and excellence. He will play a pivotal role in refining workflows, improving operational processes, and advancing the strategies that support LJI’s mission of delivering reliable local journalism to Delawareans.
Sullivan’s career began in the newsroom. A graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, he worked as a reporter for the Auburn Citizen, city editor for the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, and the founding general manager and editor of Spark magazine in Delaware. After Spark, he spent five years as the managing director of Delaware Shakespeare while creating content and providing strategic communications counsel for clients including the Greater Wilmington Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Wilmington Alliance, Reading Assist, the World Trade Center Delaware, the Delaware Coalition Against Gun Violence, and the Delaware Charter School Network (among others).
Sullivan went to work for Short Order Production House in 2019 and was promoted to chief operating officer in 2020. He was the executive producer of the Emmy award-winning “The Pathway Home,” a short documentary about New Castle County’s HOPE Center, and ADDY-award winning work for the Wilmington “It’s Time” campaign and the Delaware Developmental Disabilities Coalition. After Short Order’s acquisition, he joined Bowstring as the vice president of growth. He’s been a columnist, blogger, podcaster, restaurant critic, and a board member for Delaware Shakespeare, Reading Assist and a founding board member of the Local Journalism Initiative. He lives in Newark with his wife and their two children.
“Matt’s expertise in journalism and operations, combined with his deep commitment to our mission, makes him an ideal leader for Spotlight Delaware’s next phase of growth,” said LJI Founder and CEO Allison Taylor Levine. “As a founding board member, Matt has been instrumental in shaping LJI’s vision, and we look forward to his leadership in this new capacity.”
LJI operates several programs, including Spotlight Delaware, the collaborative, community-powered, nonprofit newsroom. Spotlight Delaware focuses on covering public policy and how it affects the daily lives of Delawareans throughout the state, with a particular emphasis on communities that have not always had access to local news and information.
“Americans never lost interest in the news that affects our friends, neighbors and community — but the newspaper industry lost its business model, a wound from which it has never fully recovered,” Sullivan said. “Allison and other visionary innovators around the country have begun this great experiment in finding a new path forward in the nonprofit sector. I’m grateful for this opportunity to support their efforts, and maybe they’ll let me write something occasionally.”
Reach Sullivan at ms*******@lj*********.org or 302.354.3306.
To learn more about Spotlight Delaware and become a Founding Member, visit spotlightdelaware.org/support.
ABOUT THE LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE (LJI)
LJI, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, is working to strengthen local journalism as a vehicle for a stronger democracy and thriving communities throughout the First State.
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