Facebook nabs Pedestrian’s head of editorial Jen Ryall for news partnerships team
Pedestrian Group’s former head of editorial, Jen Ryall, has joined Facebook as strategic partnership manager in its Australian and New Zealand news partnerships team.
Ryall acknowledged that the industry’s job market has been hit hard by COVID-19, and said she’s “extremely grateful” to step into the role after a year and a half leading Pedestrian titles Gizmodo, Business Insider, Kotaku, and Lifehacker.
Ryall joins from Pedestrian Group. Source: LinkedIn
“I’m thrilled by the opportunity to work with the diverse media businesses in the ANZ region and play a small role in supporting the industry I love,” she said.
“I know it is a crucial time for the industry and I am looking forward to playing a part in supporting the community.”
In May, Ryall revealed she’d be leaving Pedestrian at the end of June, and said: “It’s been a wild and enjoyable ride helping to shape and push these global brands even further in the Aussie market.”
Huge shout out to my driven, mighty and incredible team @tegan_writes @jrhennessy @sharonmasige @dippizuka @legenette @sbasfordcanales @jack_derwin @RosiePerper @mariiiamg who have taught me so much and made work a blast. Thank you. 2/8
— Jen Ryall (@jennijenni) May 28, 2020
Facebook has had a tumultuous few months with publishers, including pressure to pay for the news content it displays on its platform and scrutiny over its treatment of ‘original’ news reporting and fake news.
Andrew Hunter, who heads the news partnerships team across both Australia and New Zealand, said that his team is growing in the face of difficult market conditions.
“We are growing the news partnerships team and Jen’s extensive digital newsroom experience locally and internationally makes her an ideal fit to support our news partners across Australia and New Zealand,” he said.
Before joining Pedestrian last February, Ryall spent three years in New York, where she was vice president of digital content at Tegna and, before that, moved up the ranks at Mashable to become vice president of content strategy and platforms. She relocated to the US after launching Mashable in Australia as its founding editor from 2014 to 2016, and has also served in editor roles at News.com.au and Yahoo in Sydney.
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Ryall replaces Shaon Diwakar, who stepped into the new role of technical account manager at Facebook after nearly two years in the strategic partner manager position. Last October, Sasha Edwards joined the news partnerships team as partner solutions manager from the ABC, where she was editor for its broadcast video on demand (BVOD) service, iview.
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Congrats, Jen! Awesome news, no doubt you’ll kill it.