Pulitzer Prize-Winning Reporter Dean Starkman Joins GoLocal

Thursday, July 11, 2013

GoLocalWorcester News Team

Dean Starkman, Pulitzer Prize Winner

GoLocal24, the rapidly growing digital media business delivering local news and information to midsized markets, has named Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Dean Starkman as a contributor and editor-at-large.

"Dean Starkman has a tremendous track record in financial, media, and investigative reporting. His work at the Wall Street Journal as a reporter and as an editor and writer at Columbia Journalism Review (CJR), coupled with ground-breaking investigations of public corruption for The Providence Journal, is unsurpassed in the region," said Josh Fenton, Co-Founder and CEO at GoLocal24, the parent company to GoLocalWorcester.com.

Starkman helped lead The Providence Journal to the Pulitzer Prize for Investigations in 1994.

"GoLocal is an exciting addition to the news ecosystem -- an ambitious net plus to journalism resources. It produces stories that otherwise would never be told and adds crucial coverage to important beats, especially the State House, at a time when legacy news organizations, including my longtime former paper, the still much-esteemed ProJo, have suffered from the great digital disruption engulfing all media," said Starkman, who begins his role with GoLocal this month and will continue contributing to CJR and other outlets.

"As an emerging news organization, and a nimble one, GoLocal can innovate as it pleases, editorially and otherwise, and is already proving itself a bright spot in a national news landscape that doesn't have too many of those," Starkman said.

"Since we launched GoLocalProv in 2010 and GoLocalWorcester in 2012, we have had an absolute commitment to invest in high quality enterprise journalism. We have broken many of the biggest stories in our markets," said Fenton.

"Having Dean on the GoLocal team not only enhances our ability to serve readers but also further validates our company's role in the growth of the new local news ecosystem that's changing how people connect with their communities, said Merrill Brown, a member of the GoLocal Board of Directors. "We're thrilled to have a journalist with Dean's vast experience on our team."

Merrill Brown, founding editor of MSNBC.com

Starkman is editor of The Audit, CJR's blog covering the business press. He continues to contribute to CJR and will work on other high-profile national business and media stories.

In the past year, GoLocal has realized multi-hundred percent growth in pageviews, unique visitors and revenue. GoLocal is becoming a part of its community's daily lives - now realizing more than 500% year-over-year in pageview growth in Providence - in June exceeding 4 million.

In Worcester, traffic in the first year makes GoLocalWorcester the 2nd largest local digital source in Central Massachusetts, delivering more than 2 million pageviews per month.
GoLocal24 focuses on delivering the highest value local content - enterprise investigative stories, lifestyle, and local sports. GoLocal's model highlights the work of many of the best journalists in the region and features top opinion writers including former Massachusetts Speaker of the House Tom Finneran, broadcast sports editors John Rooke and Scott Cordischi, meteorologist John Ghiorse, progressive leader and former candidate for Governor Grace Ross and includes the work of more than 50 other reporters, editors, experts, and MINDSETTERS™.