Biz journalist Ante joins Edelman PR

Spencer Ante, a tech journalist who left The Wall Street Journal this summer, started Monday as a vice president and deputy editorial director of the Creative Newsroom at Edelman, an initiative that makes companies content creators.

Edelman launched the Creative Newsroom in early 2014. It is Edelman’s effort around content marketing and uses creative and editorial storytelling to help a company or brand connect with the people who matter to them. Simply put, it helps brands act more like publishers, which comes less natural for some than others.

Creative Newsroom digs unexpected stories and expressing them on whatever platform captures these stories best — social, digital, interactive, print, video, experiential, says Tyler Gray, the editorial director and a former Fast Company staffer.

“So it’s everything from #RecapInSix on Vine for Samsung TV USA to artistically designed white papers and graphics for ADP,” said Gray. “All of it becomes capital for conversation, meaning, we create the stuff that gives our clients permission to join relevant conversations when those conversations break out — usually around news. We show up with something valuable to contribute rather than just try to opportunistically camp on to a news moment.”

“We are very serious about helping each of our clients become a media company Spencer is going to drive this effort in what we are calling the Creative Newsroom,” said CEO Richard Edelman in an email to Talking Biz News. “We are so fortunate to have a journalist of his quality to be willing to lead this revolution.”

Here is what Ante said:

I accepted Edelman’s offer in part because Richard convinced me of the importance of this effort to the firm and its new strategy. The idea is to build upon Edelman’s heritage as the world’s largest public relations company and transform it into a full service communications firm. Creative Newsroom is at the forefront of that strategy.

You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to see that the journalism industry is going through a period of wrenching change. This summer, I decided it was time for a change and negotiated a buyout at the Wall Street Journal so I could pursue some new, more entrepreneurial ventures.

Ante left the Journal to cofound WhoWeUse, an iPhone app that launched this October that connects friends so they can share the local services they use, such as painters, doctors and personal trainers. He said he will continue to help build the company as a member of its board of directors, major shareholder and advisor.

Prior to joining the Journal in 2010, Ante spent many years in finance and tech reporting, including stints at Bloomberg, Business Week magazine, TheStreet.com, Wired and PC World. Ante got his undergraduate degree in business from Indiana University, and a masters in journalism from UC Berkeley.

He is the author of “Creative Capital: Georges Doriot” and the “Birth of Venture Capital,” published in 2008