With our first year in the books, The 19th is thrilled to introduce Alexandra Smith, who’ll be rallying new readers to our journalism and our mission as we head into an ambitious second year. 

As audience director, Alexandra will oversee our growth and engagement efforts across products and platforms, including our website, newsletters, social networks and membership program. We searched high and low for the right person to lead The 19th’s audience team, and couldn’t be more excited to have found Alexandra, who has spent the better part of a decade working at the intersection of audience, product and news. 

Alexandra comes to us from the local tech startup WhereBy.Us, where she was the director of growth overseeing the company’s newsletters and membership program strategy. Before joining WhereBy.Us, Alexandra led audience engagement and digital news production at The (Fort Collins) Coloradoan and the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press and traveled the country to help train other USA Today Network newsrooms in audience metrics. She’s a recent graduate of the Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program at Columbia University and alumna of the Poynter Academy Program for Women in Digital Media. Alexandra brings a design thinking approach to audience development work, and has been invited to speak on these topics at journalism events around the U.S. and abroad. 

When asked who she’d invite to dinner, Alexandra had the perfect audience and engagement pick in Julia Child, who, she notes, “found a way to turn complex recipes into something approachable without compromising on the integrity of the dish.” We agree!

Alexandra is from New Jersey, is a proud Rutgers grad, and currently lives in Fort Collins, Colo., with her partner and pup, Lincoln. Her first day with The 19th will be Jan. 11. In the meantime, you can give her a @19thnews welcome on Twitter at @AlexandraLeighS.