LOS ANGELES - Nov. 1, 2016 – Business strategy, entrepreneurship and media executive Fran Scarlett has been named director of programs and services for the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN), a nationwide network of investigative and public service news outlets.
Scarlett will run INN training, coaching and services to help nonprofit news organizations, one of the fastest-growing segments in new media. INN offers training, business and technology support to increase the impact of public service news organizations in informing and engaging communities, voters, and policy makers and holding the powerful accountable.
Scarlett is based in Wilmington, North Carolina, where she has been regional director of the Small Business & Technology Development Center (SBTDC) at the University of North Carolina.
“Scarlett brings to INN -- and our members -- extensive experience as a strategy and business growth consultant, entrepreneur, journalist and news product developer. That makes her a powerful ally and resource for the mission-driven news organizations that are forging new ways to support public interest reporting,” said INN Executive Director and CEO Sue Cross.
At the SBTDC, Fran has specialized in helping organizations understand and leverage their value propositions to build business models that maximize their potential for revenue growth and long term sustainability. She previously ran her own management consulting firm, Scarlett Ink Media, providing strategic and tactical consulting to media, biotech and non-profit organizations.
Before consulting, Scarlett spent ten years at The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer in the advertising division. She created and served as the general manager of the custom publishing group with responsibility for editorial, sales and operations, and worked with the newsroom on content development to grow revenue. She previously worked at The Wichita Eagle and The Miami Herald. At Wichita she was a general assignment reporter in metro and features before serving as publisher of NOISE- a free-distribution alternative weekly targeted to teens.
She received her MBA from Harvard University and a B.S. in Mass Communications from Boston University.
Scarlett is an adjunct faculty member of the Cameron School of Business at UNC, teaching entrepreneurship for non-business majors. She also teaches organizational behavior and negotiation and has created workshops in business model generation; leadership development and building financial literacy. She has served on numerous nonprofit boards.
The Institute for Nonprofit News is a growing national network of nearly 120 nonprofit news organizations dedicated to providing investigative and public service reporting. INN was founded in 2009 to foster a new collective of newsrooms serving the public interest. Today it functions as an innovation network, helping members develop new ways to support journalism and engage communities, providing business, technology and leadership support and a framework for collaboration. INN’s work helps newsrooms bring investigative and civic news to more people, hold the powerful accountable and strengthen democracy. More information can be found at https://archive.inn.org.
For further information about INN, contact CEO Sue Cross, sue@inn.org or 818.582.3560.