Formerly, Kleinman helped run the New York Times Idea Lab, a platform for all the editorial and advertising innovation at The Times, as well as a collaborative space to brainstorm custom solutions for marketers.
Kleinman, who joins the Guardian on March 18, will lead the effort to create bespoke content sponsorships and native ad solutions to drive the Guardian's new proposition in the US market. At the Times for the past six years, the last four of which he served as director of product marketing, Kleinman oversaw the development of custom and native advertising products and branded content solutions. He brings over 15 years of experience in the content-driven digital media space.
Cecilia Dobbs, who joined in February, will lead the Guardian US' overall product strategy and management, and collaborate with the Guardian's global digital development team to deliver a suite of editorial, consumer and advertising products tailored for the American market. Formerly, Dobbs led Product Strategy and Design at Fox Digital for over seven years, overseeing a cross-functional team of product managers, user experience (UX) engineers, and web designers.
"As we continue to build the Guardian in the US as a digital-first, cross-platform brand, Jason and Cecilia bring a wealth of experience to the team at a time of unprecedented growth and opportunity," said Guardian US CEO Michael Bloom. "These appointments will accelerate our innovation around quality products and offer brands compelling opportunities to partner with us in ways that reflect our open, collaborative and interactive approach to storytelling."
The announcement comes just over a week after the launch of the Guardian's first major national advertising campaign in the US to showcase its distinctive editorial voice and ground-breaking model of open journalism. The campaign builds on two consecutive months of record traffic growth. In February, the Guardian's US traffic topped 12.7 million unique visitors and is growing at year over year rate of 36%, maintaining its lead over BBC News and Reuters, according to industry analyst ComScore.
Jason Kleinman said, "I couldn't be more thrilled to join the Guardian, a first-class news brand with a fast-growing footprint in the US. The chance to work with colleagues in the US and across the globe to help build innovative ad solutions is a unique and exciting opportunity, and I look forward to joining the team."
Cecilia Dobbs added, "The Guardian has built a foundation of unique, high quality digital journalism, and I'm thrilled to help grow that foundation with an innovative and engaging digital experience across a variety of platforms. At a time of fierce competition in the news product market, there's no place I'd rather be than at the Guardian."
