David Arkin named to new role with GateHouse Media

David Arkin

GateHouse Media news executive, David Arkin, who leads the company's Center for News & Design, has been named senior vice president of content and product development.

Arkin, who oversees the company's print and digital content strategy, has added leadership of digital development to his responsibilities; this enables the Center for News & Design to drive product strategy across all platforms.

In 2014, Arkin launched the Center for News & Design in Austin, Texas. The Center provides editing and design services for more than 175 GateHouse newspapers. In addition, the Center is the headquarters for More Content Now, the company's content creation service that develops dozens of special sections, weekly pages and original content for publishers and marketers.

"With David's leadership, our investment in the Center for News & Design and the application of the product research we invested in last year have exceeded our expectations," said Kirk Davis, CEO of GateHouse Media. "I look forward to working closely with David to evolve the Center's capabilities and service to our industry."

Under Arkin, the company has launched initiatives focused on enterprise reporting, reporter-produced video, social media engagement, print redesigns and company-wide newsroom training. He has also established partnerships with numerous organizations including a recent extension of GateHouse's relationship with The Associated Press in which the Center for News & Design will produce 10 sports pages for AP-member newspapers.

Arkin is currently leading a significant initiative leveraging new data technologies to drive the digital transformation of GateHouse's largest newsrooms.

"I'm incredibly excited about the future at GateHouse," Arkin said. "The Center for News & Design is strengthening our news brands' print products with exciting design and content approaches. On the digital side, we're seeing significant progress being made within our newsrooms on social media. And the use of data and analytics tools to inform our coverage offers an incredible opportunity to drive new audiences. The future is very bright."

For the last three years, Arkin served as vice president of content & audience for GateHouse Media. From 2007-2011, he served as executive director of the News & Interactive Division for GateHouse where he launched the company's national news service, developed its digital content strategy and led its newsroom training programs. Prior to that, Arkin served as executive editor for newspapers in New York, Alabama, California and Texas.

Arkin serves on the Associated Press Media Editors (APME) board and the Local Media Association Foundation (LMAF) Board.