At OpenNews, we’ve always been a values-driven team that dreams big. That’s why we’re so excited to announce two big changes to OpenNews today.

We are so proud to share that Erika Owens and Sisi Wei will now be Co-Executive Directors of OpenNews, and Ryan Pitts will be our Director of Network Development.

As Erika and Sisi work together to lead as Co-Executive Directors, we’re excited to give the industry another model for what it means to be leaders who share decision-making power, who are deep collaborators, and whose support of one another can allow them to “lead from a place of joy.” We’re grateful to have been able to learn and be inspired by other organizations developing these models, like the Maynard Institute, Press On, and Resolve Philly, and we are excited to keep sharing as we learn together in this process.

Ryan will be shedding his old title as Program Lead for Technology — which has long stopped describing what he actually does — and stepping into his new role as Director of Network Development. This change finally reflects the work Ryan has been doing organically for years: listening to the community, building and strengthening connections between peers, and identifying and acting on opportunities to support the growing network of people who care about the future of journalism.

These changes in our structure and titles reflect so many of the values that are core to our work: deliberately sharing power, authenticity, collaboration, building connections between people, the real power of community, and lifelong learning and iteration in pursuit of a better future.

In the coming months, we’ll be sharing a series of essays on these changes, why we’re thrilled to be making them, dive further on what they really mean for OpenNews, and how they help us more fully embody our values.

If you want to make sure you don’t miss any of it, sign up for our community newsletter, where we’ll share our essays, as well as some behind the scenes thoughts on why we’re writing them.