About me
Ariel Zirulnick is a media strategist working at the intersection of editorial, product, engagement, and revenue to help newsrooms do journalism with and for their communities and build systems that make that work sustainable. Most recently she did that work as the director of news experimentation at LAist, where she led a small team that piloted new products, formats, features, and workflows to help the newsroom build its digital strategy. She also teaches a class on applying audience insights to news product strategy with the News Product Alliance’s News Product Management Certificate program.
Prior to LAist, she led the Membership in News Fund and Membership Guide at the Membership Puzzle Project, a global public research project studying membership models in news. She also led The New Tropic, a news startup in Miami; reported from Nairobi; and edited the Christian Science Monitor’s Middle East coverage. She’s an alumna of the 2023 cohort of CUNY’s Executive Program in News Innovation and Leadership, the Poynter Women’s Leadership Academy, and Miami Fellows.
