From Director of Editorial Video Micah Gelman and Managing Editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz:
We are excited to announce that T.J. Ortenzi will be moving into a new role on the video staff as Facebook Live Editor. Our use of Facebook Live has grown from an experiment into a powerful platform for storytelling and distribution under the smart guidance of Gene Park of the audience and engagement team. We’re increasing our Facebook Live programming so much that it now deserves its own team, which Gene will continue to advise. In his new role, T.J. will work closely with the video and social teams and partner with the rest of the newsroom to develop unique live programming for our Facebook audience.
In his 5 1/2 years at The Post, T.J. has demonstrated a spirit of creativity. These skills have been on display across the room, from his masterful guidance of The Post’s Twitter account to his vision in guiding the Rainbow team’s apps and newslettersas Editorial Director for the Emerging News Products team. While with the social team, his understanding of voice and his instincts about what worked in the social space were superb. With the Emerging News Products team, he helped steer the vision of The Post’s national product suite of apps and newsletters and was our main liaison with Apple News.
T.J. excels at spotting interesting angles and predicting what our audiences will be talking about. His judgment in selecting stories that appeal to the Rainbow audience has been impeccable. These skills will serve him well in his new role.
Before coming to The Post, he edited the Huffington Post’s homepage. He got his start in New Orleans, editing the homepage of NOLA.com in the months after Hurricane Katrina. From there, he moved onto the homepage team at The Seattle Times.
T.J. will join the video staff, reporting to Phoebe Connelly, after the DNC. T.J. will be hiring contract producers and hosts for the Facebook Live team, so please reach out to him if you know someone who might be interested.