Former journalists are running some of the most influential editorial operations in the country — but they're not at newspapers. Inside health startups, travel platforms, and media brands, they're building newsrooms tasked with helping to move the business forward, not driving subscriptions or clicks.
During a panel at Cited 2026, three former journalists sat down with the Wall Street Journal’s Katie Deighton to talk about their moves into brand editorial. AJ Smith of The Points Guy, Tracy Middleton of Hone Health, and Sarah Firshein of Tripadvisor talked about the skills that carried over from their old jobs, the skills that didn’t, and their approach to navigating a media landscape being reshaped by AI search.
How former journalists are shaping brand newsrooms
The three panelists said they knew they wanted to do something different after spending many years in traditional journalism. But for many in this space, the transition isn't always easy — while many of the tasks of the job are the same, there are new KPIs and communication styles to learn. And despite improving standards of disclosure and transparency, critics of brand journalism often question the editorial independence of a newsroom created and run by a corporation.
AJ said that she initially described her new role in brand editorial as just a slight deviation from her professional path: "I'm still a journalist; I'm just doing it in a different place, with a different company," she said.
Tracy agreed, saying that shaping the editorial department at Hone Health felt similar to her work in traditional media in that there was a focus on "doubling down on scientific accuracy." Similar to her time in journalism, part of her current job is to field pitches, assign stories, and edit them. She also said that while the KPIs at her job look different from those she had in newsrooms, her team is editorially independent from the rest of the business.
Journalism skills that translate directly to brand editorial
Traditional journalists are flocking to roles in brand editorial, drawn by the allure of using similar skills in a more stable (and often more lucrative) industry.
Stacker CEO Noah Greenberg frequently reposts these in-demand jobs on LinkedIn, and they’ve captured enough attention to warrant a recent feature in Fortune. While the salaries in brand editorial are, in some cases, eye-popping, Noah said the deeper goal of his posts is to document the shift of journalists working at traditional mastheads to becoming in-house editorial leaders at major brands.
The panel at Cited said that with frequent layoffs in traditional media, there’s an abundance of talented writers, editors, and strategists available to staff or freelance for these brand newsrooms. Their many transferable skills include:
- Operational chops: Journalists' skills translate easily to brand newsrooms, Tracy said. She refuted the perception that "content people" are just creative and lack organization, saying that former journalists are seasoned to "balance deadlines like nobody else can." She said it has been amazing to see their "unrivaled operational prowess" transfer to a new environment.
- Insatiable curiosity: Journalism itself is the training for these roles in brand newsrooms. Loving to ask questions is key to transitioning from traditional to brand editorial, the panelists said.
- Adaptability as a superpower: Journalists are adaptable by nature, Tracy said, having made many transitions in their careers, from video to social to digital, and now to GEO. She said they have a built-in hunger to learn the next thing rather than settle for the status quo.
But while journalists are adaptable, AJ pointed out that part of the challenge to building a newsroom is understanding your true needs: Do you need a journalist? Or a generalist? Or a subject matter expert?
Once that fit is right, brand newsrooms offer something traditional mastheads often can't: fluidity. There's an opportunity to move across projects, formats, and roles in ways that keeps talent excited and engaged.
Making the case for editorial investment
Former journalists who find themselves in new corporate environments need to learn to frame successes for all types of stakeholders, rather than just doing good work and publishing it, Sarah said.
"Don't rest on your laurels," she said. "Go to bat for your work."
In brand newsrooms, making the case for an editorial budget or reminding execs why content is a sound investment may mean building slide decks that set or monitor strategic metrics. AJ said that choosing the right metrics to highlight means front-loading your argument with what stakeholders care about most.
Coming in with a clear, direct POV is key when communicating with stakeholders — and content leaders need to be proactive. Establishing and building brand authority takes time and many touchpoints.
“If you're not sharing it, someone's making up their mind anyway, so be a part of that conversation,” AJ said. “They'll tell you if they agree with you, what they agree with, and you'll come to a better place.”
Content does more than one job: Brand-building vs. conversion
When building a newsroom, content leaders should have another in-house conversation to help stakeholders understand that content can support their audiences in more ways than one.
Tracy described content as having two distinct purposes, and there are different ways of evaluating their success. For example:
- Editorial or journalistic pieces of content support brand-building
- Traditional on-page SEO content is optimized for conversions
Sarah said that at Tripadvisor, content is an extension of the brand's well-known voice. For example, a thought leadership piece could be conversational in tone and cover travel trends the team is excited about. That looks different from how the brand shows up in a short email or in conversion moments that help people when they're ready to book travel.
These shifts show up across brand newsrooms more generally. The brand voice that explores ideas in a thought leadership piece evolves as it guides potential customers through a purchase decision.
Writing for both readers and algorithms: The GEO challenge
The panelists said that optimizing for GEO visibility is now a necessary, strategic aspect of the work that modern brand newsrooms do.
Before ideating on the angle for a piece of content, AJ said she considers where it could live online. In some ways, it goes back to communication strategy 101:
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Target audience: Identify who you're trying to reach.
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Key messages: What do we want to be known for? What are we trying to be experts in?
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Distribution channels: Where do we want to show up?
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Goals: What are we aiming for: Visibility? Authority?
With the basics established, AJ recommended fleshing out content ideas to give them the best chance of being visible to AI platforms.
But while these considerations are important, they shouldn’t dictate the overarching content strategy, AJ said. The main strategy should still be to create content around what the brand thinks is important to share with its audience. And when it comes to specific tactics, consider that algorithmic updates will shift over time.
Tracy's strategy is similar: work backward from the GEO citations the brand has and optimize for those platforms. For instance, if YouTube is the main source of most of their brand citations, should their content be more video-based and focus on syndicated distribution? Which media outlets are driving most of the citations, and how can they target them?
Sarah compared the need for editorial teams to be nimble to a slalom race in the Olympics — while SEO once dictated the path, now teams are thinking more about content structure and how to organize an article to reach LLMs.
Optimizing content for platforms doesn't come with a one-size-fits-all strategy, Tracy said. It varies by brand, and she suggested that everyone dig into their own data to figure out the best approach for their goals.
With journalists at the helm, brand editorial is in good hands
Throughout the panel conversation, one theme kept surfacing: journalism training didn't just prepare these editors to write — it prepared them to adapt, defend the value of their work, and build systems under pressure, whatever the environment.
As more media talent flows into brand newsrooms, that training may end up reshaping not just how brands communicate, but what audiences come to expect from them.
