Jake Batsell is spending the 2013-14 academic year at The Texas Tribune in Austin as part of a Knight Foundation fellowship to research best practices in the business of digital news. Batsell is an assistant professor at Southern Methodist University’s Division of Journalism in Dallas, where he teaches digital journalism, media entrepreneurship and investigative reporting. He conducts academic research on audience engagement, media convergence and emerging mobile platforms and is working on a book, Engaged Journalism: Connecting With Digitally Empowered News Audiences, to be published in late 2014 by Columbia University Press. He previously worked as a staff writer for The Seattle Times and Dallas Morning News.

Nicole has spent her career applying digital media to products in industries ranging from Broadway to finance to journalism. A Northwestern University grad, Nicole has managed the online brands for shows like Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera, worked on web development, ticketing and calendar conversion and ad network development with clients such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Lincoln Center and tackled online tools and branding for companies like the New Yorker and Goldman Sachs. On the ad agency side, she oversaw national digital campaigns and one-to-one marketing products for AT&T. She has managed web, print, outdoor and on-air production for TV and radio stations, hotels and real-estate developments. Her 6 years on the business side of the non-profit start-up the St. Louis Beacon have given her a front row seat for the transformation happening in local news and the opportunity that digital platforms bring. She is a co-founder of St. Louis for the Love, an organization that organizes the love focused on this dynamic and innovative city.