Jim Brady has been vice president of Journalism at Knight Foundation since 2021 and oversees Knight’s journalism portfolio of more than $200 million. During his tenure, Brady has been instrumental in developing the strategic framework behind Press Forward, a $500 million effort to revitalize local news in the United States. A longtime digital media innovator and executive, Brady has guided Knight’s investments in sustainable and scalable local news business models that allow for revenue diversification, market expansion, strategic partnerships and innovative product development. 

Brady has spent 37 years in journalism, almost 30 of them in digital. He has served as executive editor of washingtonpost.com, editor in chief at Digital First Media, executive director of news and sports at AOL, and public editor at ESPN. He’s also an entrepreneur who bootstrapped the local news startup Spirted Media, which operated Billy Penn in Philadelphia, The Incline in Pittsburgh and Denverite. He’s consulted for legacy and digital publishers; worked with print, broadcast and digital operations; managed editorial, product, technology and revenue teams; and experienced three mergers, three sales, two bankruptcies and countless reorganizations.  

Brady’s experience in digital journalism goes back so far that he was on the team that launched washingtonpost.com in 1996 and worked at AOL when it was still considered cool. He is a past president of the Online News Association, a two-time judge of the Pulitzer Prizes, and currently serves on the boards of the American Press Institute, International Media Women’s Foundation and Media Impact Funders. He is a 1989 graduate of American University with a degree in print journalism (yes, print journalism).