Michael Silberman, New York Media’s general manager, digital, announced today that Matt Johnston has joined the company as executive producer of video and will be charged with significantly expanding original video efforts. Johnston will hire a team of additional producers to create video content across New York Media properties, including nymag.com, Vulture, and the Cut, optimized for social-media distribution and in these brands’ unique voices.
Johnston joins the company from Business Insider, where he was a producer and editor for both the flagship site and Tech Insider. Prior to that, he produced TV news for Las Vegas’s ABC affiliate and obtained his master’s degree in broadcast journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
“Having learned from our own experimentation and others’ struggles in developing digital video businesses, we see the opportunity to build an audience for video across Facebook, YouTube, and other platforms including our own sites,” says Silberman. “We intend to be nimble and opportunistic, while maintaining the high standards users expect from New York Magazine.”
“I’m looking forward to working with Matt on creating a distinctive video identity that will resonate on our sites and across various social-media platforms,” says digital editor Ben Williams.