NerdWallet promotes two to deputy director of content

Personal finance site NerdWallet has promoted two journalists to be deputy director of content.

NerdWallet has promoted Marcus Chan to deputy director of content. Previously, Chan was an assigning editor who focused on data-driven content. Before joining NerdWallet, Chan was technology editor for Bloomberg.com. Previously, he was the San Francisco Chronicle’s business editor, technology editor and database editor, as well as the newsroom’s first multimedia editor.

His accolades include two from the Society of Professional Journalists: first place for online explanatory journalism and the Unsung Hero Award. Chan also won the Hearst Eagle Award, given to the newspaper’s top journalist. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and sociology from Whitworth University.

NerdWallet has also promoted Don Kirkpatrick to deputy director of content. Previously, he was an assigning editor focused on banking. Before joining NerdWallet, Kirkpatrick worked in traditional news for more than two decades at newspapers such as The Seattle Times and The Arizona Republic, primarily as an editor.

He also spent eight years at MSN, where he led a personal finance team that generated 1 billion page views in one year. Kirkpatrick managed NerdWallet’s banking team of 10 writers and editors before becoming a deputy director. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Western Washington University.

“We now have about 100 staff writers and editors,” said Maggie Leung, vice president of content, in an email to Talking Biz News. “For content, we concentrate on hiring journalists from traditional media because we value the best practices of journalism, including editorial integrity and accuracy. What we look for on top of those core skills: startup mindset. That includes high comfort with the change that comes with startups; the ability to build new skills and initiative — that means not waiting to be told what to do. Every one of our writers and editors receives stock options because we expect everyone to act like an owner, not an employee.”