Wall Street Journal Names New Social Media Director

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Liz Heron has been named director of social media and engagement for The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. In her new role, Heron will lead a growing team that will be more focused on deepening the engagement with existing readers globally as well as expanding audiences.

Heron previously served as social media editor at The New York Times. She defined its overall social media sensibility, and established new ways of storytelling, gathering news and distributing journalism using social tools. She worked to put social media front and center during live coverage at a time when events such as the Arab Spring, the death of Steve Jobs, the Occupy Wall Street movement and other news events were changing the way journalists and readers approach major news. As the lead social editor on the U.S. elections, she has developed projects that emphasize reader participation in newsgathering, and experimented with social video. Heron also developed strategies for innovating on new platforms such as Google+, and set standards for individuals and desks when it came to using Twitter and Facebook for journalism.

Previously, Heron was the digital innovations editor on the foreign desk of The Washington Post, where she first began experimenting with social media to cover stories such as the Iranian revolution and the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti. In her 10-year career as a journalist, she has also worked at ABC News and the Associated Press as a producer and reporter.