LEADERSHIP THAT
INSPIRES
FIXER
PROVEN EXPERIENCE
INTERNET INNOVATOR
As Communications Director for the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, Witt led a comprehensive redesign of millercenter.org, the third-largest U.S. think tank website (5.5m uniques/year).
He doubled year-over-year earned media appearances for Miller Center experts (valued at $2.4 million/month).
He directed geometric growth on Miller Center social media channels (10-fold increase in Facebook “likes” and reach)
He created and taught new metrics-driven journalistic decision-making in Gannett newsrooms across the country.
He oversaw the complete overhaul and expansion of the website for Stars and Stripes, boosting traffic and creating new content niches that attracted advertisers and opened fresh revenue streams.
He forged new relationships between bloggers and the mainstream media, demonstrating how journalists could utilize social media to reach vast new audiences.
He guided content strategies for MinorityInterest.com, a start-up targeted at underserved American audiences.
As an Internet visionary, Witt directed the Chicago Tribune's early forays onto the web, pioneering a bold front-page web design in 1998 that today is a news industry design standard.
DYNAMIC MANAGER
At the Miller Center, Witt built a communications and marketing operation from the ground up; introduced metrics-based decision-making, and led crisis communications responses.
As the Senior Managing Editor at Stars and Stripes, Witt turned around a struggling newsroom and inspired reporters and editors to challenge the military with hard-hitting journalism, leading to a Polk Award and a National Headliner Award for Public Service.
In his first six months at the Lafayette Journal & Courier, Witt led the newsroom in producing major enterprise work that garnered first place prizes from the Society for Professional Journalists, the Hoosier State Press Association and the Best of Gannett competition.
As the editor of one of the nation's leading alternative newspapers, he taught the nuances of long-form narrative journalism to a staff of young and hungry reporters at the Washington City Paper.
He restructured four different newsrooms to reduce expenses while simultaneously increasing productivity, awarding incentive raises to top employees and expanding staff diversity.
Witt overhauled employee performance evaluation systems to emphasize fairness, consistency, clear expectations and actionable feedback.