Graham Media Group, the local media division of Graham Holdings Company (NYSE: GHC), announced today that Aaron King has been named vice president and general manager of Social News Desk, the leading social media management solution for news.
The announcement comes as Kim Wilson, founder and president of SND, shared her plans to depart the company at the end of April, along with co-founder Elisa DeFoe.
“I cannot overstate how proud I am of what we have accomplished as a team at Social News Desk,” said Wilson. “But the time is right for me to start a new chapter focused on my family, my health, and personal projects I’m passionate about. And while I will remain SND’s biggest fan, I could not be more confident in the leadership of Aaron King to take Social News Desk to new heights. It has been the privilege of my professional life to build the business, brand and culture that have defined SND for the past 12 years. What was once little more than a conversation between Elisa and myself has now become an essential tool for an industry that we love.”
King, known as an innovative, hands-on software executive with a history of cultivating winning development teams and successful startups, joined Social News Desk in 2015 as its chief technology officer. As CTO, he spent the past eight years overseeing SND’s best in class technology platform while working closely with Wilson to set roadmap goals and company vision.
“It is a real honor to be entrusted with the future of SND,” said King. “We have a world-class product and team positioned for success thanks to the hard work of our founders. Over the past eight years, I’ve been privileged to work with outstanding colleagues and fantastic customers who love and appreciate the value of our products and services. For their sake, I look forward to stoking the innovative spirit that got us here and to leading us into a prosperous future.”
Prior to joining Social News Desk, King co-founded Varsity Outreach, a private community platform for college admissions and alumni engagement. Before that he led software engineering teams for companies including Amazon, New World Systems and TicketsNow.com.
A Detroit native, King previously served on the board of The Heat and Warmth Fund (THAW).
He has also supported various organizations including Detroit Regional Chamber, ACCESS Detroit, Southwest Detroit Business Association (SBDA) and the Michigan Minority Business Development Council (MMBDC).
King currently resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he and his wife Jennifer have four children.
About SND:
Social News Desk is the leading social media management solution for local news. The technology has become industry standard across the U.S. and abroad as nearly 30,000 journalists rely on the technology. Newsrooms on five continents use Social News Desk to distribute, display and monetize social media content. SND partners have used its technology to publish several billion organic social posts and generate hundreds of millions of ad impressions over the past 12 years.
About Graham Media Group:
Graham Media Group, a subsidiary of Graham Holdings Co. (NYSE: GHC), operates Graham Digital, Social News Desk and seven local media hubs — each in a top-75 market and all recognized as news leaders: KPRC–Houston, WDIV–Detroit and WSLS– Roanoke (NBC); KSAT–San Antonio (ABC); WKMG–Orlando (CBS); WJXT–Jacksonville (fully local) and WCWJ–Jacksonville (CW).
Based in Detroit, Graham Digital is a digital media and technology development group widely recognized as a leading industry innovator. Social News Desk provides its 2,500-plus worldwide newsroom customers with a single dashboard to publish, measure, curate and monetize local news content on social platforms.
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