Ad Age names San Fran bureau chief

Cotton Delo has been named San Francisco bureau chief for Advertising Age, a Crain’s publication.

Michael Learmonth of Ad Age writes, “When I first met Cotton, I was expecting someone male, maybe wearing seersucker, which is why I looked right past the woman sitting in Ad Age’s lobby for an interview a little more than a year ago. Once we got that confusion out of the way, she joined Ad Age as a reporter covering social media, which largely meant Facebook and Twitter, but also a wide range of topics dear to Ad Age, such as media, politics, privacy and startups — including the first forays into business for Foursquare, Pinterest and Tumblr.

“As head of Ad Age’s San Francisco bureau, Cotton will expand her coverage to Bay Area ad agencies, consumer-focused startups, ad tech and venture-capital firms. She will, to put it in old-fashioned journalism terms, ‘follow the money,’ which increasingly flows from the world’s biggest brands to tech platforms such as search, social and video to reach consumers. She’ll also cover the personalities creating change, so expect to see her at meetups, parties and events.

“Prior to Ad age, Cotton was northeast editor for AOL’s lifestyle and culture site, City’s Best. Before that, she joined a nameless, stealth-mode startup that would soon be known as Patch, where she helped launch three sites in her hometown of South Orange, N.J.

“She has been a reporter at The Jersey Journal (along with fellow Ad Age-er Jason Del Rey), covering Hoboken, transportation and writing the “Fix It” column. She speaks Portuguese and taught English in Vitoria, Brazil after earning a B.A. from Yale.”

Read more here.