WSJ’s Ho joins Hearst Newspapers

David Ho, executive mobile editor and mobile product director for The Wall Street Journal, has joined Hearst Newspapers as vice president and executive editor, digital audience and news innovation.

Ho led the Journal’s news operations on smartphones and tablets and oversaw the mobile evolution of its newsroom. In his new role, Ho will guide the transformation of Hearst newsrooms — including the Houston Chronicle and the San Francisco Chronicle — to reach new audiences and produce content for mobile, social and online platforms.

As the Journal’s mobile leader, Ho built its mobile team, founded the WSJ iPad app and led innovation in areas including push notifications, news algorithms, virtual reality and wearable gadgets. Ho has trained more than 3,500 journalists in the U.S. and around the world to use the latest digital tools in news reporting.

“I’m very excited to join Hearst Newspapers,” Ho said in a statement. “Hearst’s newsrooms — its editors, producers and reporters — have a deep tradition of quality journalism and storytelling. Combine that with Hearst’s strong and solid commitment to innovating in smart ways across digital platforms and I know we’ll be doing great things.”

Prior to joining the Journal, Ho spent more than a decade as a national reporter at The Associated Press and Cox Newspapers. He was one of the original web programmers behind WSJ.com. Ho, a Poynter Institute Ethics Fellow, also created and taught a graduate course on mobile and emerging platform journalism at the City University of New York.