
Product Manager, Distributed Media, Dow Jones Local Media Group
Barnstable/Yarmouth, Massachusetts Area

Product Manager, Distributed Media, Dow Jones Local Media Group
Barnstable/Yarmouth, Massachusetts Area
Extensive experience in aggressive Web audience growth and development of new media products that meet consumer needs while also achieving a company's strategic and operational goals.
Correct spelling: Sean Polay. Occasional misspellings: Shaun Polay, Shawn Polay, Sean Poulet, Shaun Poulet, Shawn Poulet, Sean Polly, Shaun Polly, Shawn Polly
Content development, site design and usability, CMS usage and training, online production, project and product management, content distribution and marketing.
(Public Company; DJ; Publishing industry)
December 2008 — Present (1 year )
Responsible for product development, digital marketing, and sales packaging and pricing for the Dow Jones Local Media Group's newspaper Web sites and content distribution via RSS, e-mail and mobile.
(Online Media industry)
January 2007 — Present (2 years 11 months)
Founding board member and current president of trade organization charged with helping those on the front lines of new media at New England newspapers and other organization expand their skills and networking.
(Public Company; Newspapers industry)
August 2008 — December 2008 (5 months)
Returned to Ottaway to continue to reshape the company and finish the job of transforming its business, content and marketing models to meet the needs of local audiences and advertisers.
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)
April 2008 — August 2008 (5 months)
Oversaw onboarding of acquired crafting enthusiast Web sites -- craftster.org and splitcoaststampers.com -- with a particular focus on accelerating revenue development. Also enhanced usability and customer satisfaction while also developing audience building programs. Refined the user experience and content of organically developed sites such as cats.com and mommy.com.
(Public Company; Online Media industry)
January 2006 — April 2008 (2 years 4 months)
• Spearheaded 18-month redesign project for all of Ottaway’s media groups. This included leading site map, wireframe, design and content development phases, with a goal of improving the customer experience at the company’s Web sites.
• Developed and taught a content-management training program, reinforcing basic concepts of leveraging Internet’s immediacy and interactivity. This program served as a catalyst for newsroom-wide involvement in new media products, and became the foundation from which a “virtual beat” concept was born and built. Virtual beats – ownership of topics by subject-matter experts across all media products – quickly took root throughout the company.
• Led design, development and launch of re-engineered employment and automotive verticals in 2007.
• Directed 40 percent growth of company’s page views and 26 percent increase in daily unique users within first year.
(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Newspapers industry)
November 1999 — December 2005 (6 years 2 months)
Oversaw programming, production and design of metropolitan daily newspaper Web site. Focused on product development and fulfillment for both news and sales. Interacted with all newspaper departments, and provided them with online solutions to help them achieve their goals.
(Online Media industry)
1998 — 1999 (1 year )
Took fledgling online publication that started with syndicated and local opinion columns and turned it into one of the country's first online-only daily news publication, complete with sports, entertainment and lifestyle sections.
(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Newspapers industry)
1993 — 1998 (5 years )
· Worked police beat during most of my five years at the Cape Cod Times. Covered all types of breaking news stories while writing enterprise features about community policing, individual officers and other law enforcement programs. Also wrote regional police stories, analyzing statewide or national statistics and their application to the region. Developed enterprise stories and series, including an award-winning trio of articles about teens and the drug culture on Cape Cod.
None , Print Journalism , September 1989 — May 1993
Cycling, golf, cooking, music
New England New Media Association, Newspaper Association of America
· projo.com won an EPpy™ Award in 2005 from Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek magazines, earning the distinction as best overall newspaper Web site in its size category.
· projo.com earned a Special Distinction Award in the 2004 Batten Awards from The Institute for Interactive Journalism for its "Tribute to Our Troops" section. The award spotlights the creative use of new information ideas and technologies to involve citizens in public issues.
· The New England Associated Press News Executives Association bestowed four awards on projo.com in 2004: Best Overall , Best Engagement, Best Public Service and Best Entertainment site in New England.
· projo.com was part of The Providence Journal's entry in the 2004 Pulitzer Prize competition. The entry, which was for the newspaper and Web site's coverage of The Station nightclub fire, was a finalist in the Public Service category.