WSJ hires Willis to be head of video

Wall Street Journal editor in chief Matt Murray sent out the following on Tuesday:

All:

I’m truly delighted to share the news that Amanda Wills is joining The Wall Street Journal newsroom as Head of Video on Nov. 1.

Amanda will bring a wide range of journalistic and leadership skills to the Journal, including expertise in breaking news and live coverage, conceiving and building teams, building out editorial and control-room workflows and leading successful collaboration across newsrooms on big stories and company priorities.

She will put those skills and experiences – and many others –  into practice in our newsroom as we roll out ambitious growth plans for our video department, including adding several dozen new roles to the team, making significant investment in our studio capability and control-room functionality and deepening the role of video across the newsroom and our platforms.

Amanda comes to the Journal after six years at CNN, where she rose through various leadership positions, including executive producer of breaking news for CNN Digital, to become vice president of content programming for CNN+. During her time at CNN Digital, Amanda led the Live News team to cover big breaking events, setting several readership records. Before CNN, Amanda was deputy executive editor at Mashable.

Amanda considers one of her strengths to be cross-functional work. “I thrive in spaces that intersect with content, business, product and research,” she says. “I manage teams who are efficient, creative and respectful of each other. I want to be seen as a boss who encourages her teams to prosper and let their work shine.”

A long-time Journal reader, she adds: “Video is integral to the future of The Wall Street Journal, and I am honored to lead this global effort alongside the best journalists in the business.”

Amanda is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and holds a dual bachelor’s degree in journalism and electronic media and Spanish. She lives in Carroll Gardens with her husband, Sam, and their daughter, Veronica.

She will be leading a department that has over the last year continued to grow, reaching a wider demographic with a broad swath of award-winning coverage, even amid some of the challenges presented by the pandemic and lockdowns. Our stories are reaching new audiences across a variety of formats and platforms, from essential breaking-news coverage and explainers on WSJ.com to Emmy-award winning short documentaries and long-form docuseries on streaming platforms. During this interim period, the team has worked collaboratively, set the news agenda and driven our success.

Our continued success is a testament to each member of the department, and particularly to the tireless work, dedication and leadership of Christina Vallice and Ben Weltman. They didn’t hesitate to take up the co-interim roles for the video and audio departments when I asked them to do so early this year, and they have tirelessly advocated for the video team’s members and the department across Dow Jones. Together they have made a terrific partnership and have led the teams to create impressive and agenda-setting journalism, of which we’re all enormously proud. I don’t really have the proper words to express our collective gratitude to the two of them–who, of course, happily remain in their senior roles on the team.

Please join me in welcoming Amanda to the Journal and in thanking Christina and Ben for all they’ve done.

Best,

Matt