Jon Wile
Current Title: Vice President of Design
Organization: American City Business Journals
Country: United States
Candidate for: President
Vision for SND
Two years ago, I pledged that it was “time for SND to get a reboot.” I am proud to say we have largely done that, merging the print and digital competitions, starting a non-editorial category for the competition, creating an economically conscious member price, and refocused how the Society prioritizes its time and efforts. Most importantly, the Society was in financial distress without a clear pathway to move forward. We have fixed that problem and now have a healthy cash reserve to operate with more flexibility and aggression.
That said, my work as President is not finished. If elected to another 2-year team I would address these items:
• Continue the evolution of SND to include story-tellers from beyond the news design and media world. This will be done primarily through the competition, but also through how we talk about and incorporate AI into our daily work.
• Help the organization become a thought leader around AI in the visual design and story-telling spaces.
• Redesign and reinvent the web site into something that is more fitting of an international design organization.
• Add historical results from the creative competition to the web site. The archive of work that SND has awarded in the past 40+ years is a differentiator and would be best perk current and potential members could have.
• Continue to explore how training events can happen in partnership with other industry trade events. Having a tract of design training at non-design industry events limits SND’s financial liability, increases design awareness, and reduces the staffing power required to pull off a large-scale event like the annual workshop. It allows SND to move to different parts of the country and the world, making it easier for folks to attend in-person training.
The Society has:
• Helped me meet amazing mentors that shaped my career;
• Taught me so many elements of how to be a visual journalist and news designer;
• Given me professional recognition through the competition, workshop and other training events;
• Helped me grow my professional network;
• Instilled in me the confidence to be a leader and executive at my company My colleagues would tell you that I am a natural collaborator and not afraid to make hard decisions. I enjoy enterprise-level projects and rebuilding teams and processes.
I am the right person to lead this organization. I love SND and don’t want to see it continue to grow into the amazing organization we all know it can be.
About Jon
Jon Wile is VP/Design at American City Business Journals in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jon oversees design for 40 business journals across editorial, advertising, events, marketing, product, and UX. He created and manages the News Design Desk and Business Design Desk, a pair of centralized design teams that have more than 50 designers across the U.S. Previously at ACBJ, Jon served as VP/Content as well as Creative Director, a role in which he redesigned all 40 papers and web sites.
Before joining ACBJ in 2012, Jon worked in a variety of design and leadership roles at The Washington Post for seven years. He’s also worked at The Plain Dealer and Detroit Free Press. He’s a graduate of Kent State University, with a degree in newspaper journalism.
Jon is the current President of the Society for News Design, an organization he has supported for more than two decades in a variety of roles. He hosted the annual workshop in Charlotte (2017) and was contest coordinator for the annual creative competition.
Jon resides in Charlotte with his two sons, J.J. and Theo, and a rescue dog, Rocky. He enjoys drinking and collecting bourbon, playing golf, watching Ohio State football, travelling, and cooking.