Kathy Best

Managing Editor / Digital News and Innovation

The Seattle Times
Seattle, Wash.

Best

Career summary: I grew up in a weekly newspaper family but have worked for papers on both coasts (The Baltimore Sun, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer) and the Midwest (the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Lee Enterprises) as a statehouse reporter, Washington correspondent, city editor, assistant managing editor/metro and assistant managing editor/national, foreign and Sunday. I moved to the online side of the room 18 months ago when I joined The Seattle Times.

Recent accomplishments: Helping to lead our newsroom's transformation to serve multiple platforms, creating a Web development team to keep seattletimes.com ahead of the curve and serving as a living, breathing example that it's never too late to learn new tricks.

APME activities: I am new to APME. But editors at my newspaper have a long tradition of support for the organization, participation in its rich programming and service on the APME Board of Directors.

APME should: Help demystify online for newspapers just entering the digital world and help papers with established Web sites figure out how they can continue to thrive as the newsrooms around them shrink. Now, more than ever, we need to share what we know and help each other.

In my spare time: I serve on the ONA legal committee and guest lecture to college classes every chance I get. I also try to take full advantage of the bounty of the Pacific Northwest, from mountains to sound to restaurants to bookstores. And, of course, feed the dogs.