Merrill Brown

Merrill Brown is a media executive and journalist. In addition to writing for The Washington Post, he launched MSNBC.com and was the website’s founding editor-in-chief.^[4][5] He is the former Director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University.^[6] Brown is founder of The News Project.^[1]

Merrill Brown
Born	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma mater	Washington University in St. Louis
Occupation(s)	The News Project Founder[1]
Known for	•MSNBC.com Founding Editor-in-Chief •Court TV •Montclair State University Former Director, School of Communication and Media [2][3]

Career

Journalist

Brown was associated with The Washington Post from 1979 to 1985, serving as a financial reporter (1979–1982), New York City financial correspondent (1982–1984) and director of business development, Washington Post Company (1984–1985).^[7] Prior to that, Brown wrote for The Washington Star (1978–1979), Media General Newspapers (1975–1978), the Winston-Salem Sentinel (1974–1975) and the St. Louis Post Dispatch (1973–1974).^[8]

Brown was a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors from 1988 to 1991.^[9][10]

On January 10, 2023, it was announced that Brown was appointed as the editorial director for G/O Media.^[11] On June 30, he announced a decision to test AI-generated content on the company's portfolio of media websites, and was met with opposition from the different editorial teams across the portfolio.^[12]

Launching Court TV, MSNBC.com

Brown was a member of the 1991 launch team for the cable network Court TV. From 1990-1994, he oversaw public relations and the development of the network's day-to-day management structure.^[13]

In 1996, Brown helped launch MSNBC.com, and was the website’s first editor-in-chief. He was responsible for connecting Microsoft’s “technology wizards” and NBC’s “news hounds,” developing the relationships between MSNBC on the Internet, based in Redmond, Washington, and MSNBC Cable, based in New Jersey.^[4] He went on to become senior vice president in August 2000 and during his tenure, the company grew to become one of the most visited news offerings on the Internet.^[14]

Media consultant

In the spring of 2005, he prepared a report for the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which examined young peoples' changing media consumption habits.^[15] The report was referenced later that year in a speech to the American Society of Magazine Editors.^[16] In 2012, Brown co-authored a report with Larry Kramer, publisher of USA Today, about the future of the PBS NewsHour. The report, commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, called on the program to “modernize news-gathering production.”^[17]

Montclair State University

In 2012, Brown was appointed as the inaugural Director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University.^[2][3]

Board work

Brown has served on the boards of directors for GoLocal24,^[18] Revenue.com and MedCity News. He is also an advisor to Capture Media Inc., Dstillery, Mixpo and is a member of the advisory board of the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.^[19]

Previously Brown was chairman of the board at NowPublic.^[20] Brown has also served on the board of Smashing Ideas Inc.^[21]

The News Project

In 2018 Brown formed The News Project with founding partners Charming Robot, 10up, Mark Walsh and other investors supporting the platform, which includes technology from Piano.^[22]