Kat Downs Mulder, Chief Product Officer and managing editor for The Washington Post, has announced that Jessica Parker Gilbert is joining as Head of Product. In this role, Gilbert will lead the Product and Product Design teams working on the entire suite of Washington Post branded products, including the website, apps and tools for journalists and marketers. She will play a key role in new product development and manage the teams that are responsible for the product experience throughout the full subscriber journey, including home screens, story pages, navigation, recirculation, email, paywall, product pages, checkout, onboarding, personalization and relevance. She will also be a partner to the marketing, advertising, opinions and newsroom teams.
Gilbert has more than two decades of experience in media at the intersection of design, journalism and technology. Most recently she was senior director of McClatchy’s core product and experience team, known as ProdX, and worked with 29 news organizations, including Miami Herald, Kansas City Star and Sacramento Bee, to grow digital subscriptions, create more dynamic story pages and homepages, and launch new registration and paywall experiences. Throughout her time at McClatchy, as design director, creative director and senior director, Gilbert maintained a strong focus on building customer-centered experiences and facilitating collaboration among cross-functional teams. She was also the Executive Champion for the McClatchy Women’s Employee Resource Group.
Earlier in her career, Gilbert had roles in marketing communications at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, feature art direction at the Tampa Bay Times and news design at The News-Press in Fort Myers, FL.
