We’re excited to share a new episode of our podcast, “In Conversation With WSJ Digital Experience & Strategy.”

In this episode our guest is Lydia Serota. Lydia is Head of Content Experiences at DXS and has worked at the Journal for 14 years. We talk to Lydia about her time in the newsroom and what it’s like moving to a product-focused role, plus … her unbelievably powerful tennis backhand.

This episode was recorded in December 2020.

[Listen Here]

Lydia manages a group that includes the CMS (Content Management System) team, newsroom tools team, storytelling team and innovation team. Before joining DXS in March 2020, Lydia was the Journal’s digital platforms editor, where she oversaw the presentation of journalism across apps and web. Prior to that, she worked on the Finance team as stocks editor, in the London Hub editing breaking news, and on the night shift of WSJ.com. She joined the Journal in 2007 after working as a news editor at Yahoo.

About the Podcast

A podcast series about the people behind Digital Experience and Strategy at The Wall Street Journal. In each episode we’ll get to know our guests and cover a range of topics like the future of news, inspirations and things you won’t hear anywhere else.

Our aim is to have engaging and authentic conversations that provide insight, inspiration, and good times. The podcast is hosted by Thomas Williams (VP, Design) and Jillian Breitfeller (Design Program Manager).

Previous Episodes

You can listen to our first episode with Anthony DeRosa and subscribe here.

Happy listening!

In Conversation With Lydia Serota was originally published in WSJ Digital Experience & Strategy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Digital Experience and Strategy team at The Wall Street Journal (DXS) has always had an active “Culture Squad” that provides support and inspiration, and fosters collaboration and community-building within the department.

Enhancing team culture has always been important, but with the shift to remote work since the start of the pandemic, the Culture Squad’s work to build a positive team environment has become even more essential. As we shifted our programming in response to this new world of work, we learned the importance of meeting people where they are and finding versatile solutions.

Before the pandemic, the Culture Squad had been working toward initiatives such as a team snack bar and shared supply shelves, the formation of a quiet room and community space, and handing out WSJ gear. We were also planning a hackathon, a movie night, and programs around communication style, “getting into flow,” and emotional intelligence. These events were geared toward better understanding ourselves and each other, and drove at the cultural values we aspired to.

That all changed when Covid hit and in-person meetups became impossible. Initially, we quickly pivoted to new programming aimed to support the team during this transition. We created an initiative to host weekly remote meetups, which included a chat around working from home with children, completing a group WSJ Crossword puzzle, learning how to bake pies, a group baking and happy hour, a pet meet-and-greet, pub games, a group mural, a Mario Kart tournament, movie recommendations, and a Harry Potter book and movie discussion.

While the weekly meetups were fun and kept the team connected, “Zoom fatigue” was a real thing — and asking team members to join one more video call as the pandemic wore on seemed unsustainable. It was important that we took a step back and really looked at the problems we were aiming to solve, and brainstormed unique solutions. For this reason, we pivoted our programming, and focused on more flexible and versatile solutions, allowing us to meet changing needs.

Over the summer, we hosted our first full-day team “offsite” event, and instead of simply sitting on a large group hangout all day, we merged various forms of communication, including an event Slack channel and break-out rooms — along with finding time for workshops and entertaining activities that fell outside of our other work-focused programming.

We arranged a team-wide “shadowing” project, allowing everyone to shadow one person for the day, in order to learn about other teams that they may not always get to work directly with on a regular basis.

For our end-of-year holiday celebration, we provided a space where individuals could send “kudos” to a fellow team member, thanking them for their hard work. We’re also mailing out some long-awaited WSJ DXS gear — because remote or in-person, there is just something about matching swag that reminds us we are all a part of the whole!

In these challenging times, a culture of community and collaboration remains critical to our team’s success. What we can do to continue to build that culture remains a work in progress. Just as we listen to our customers to help determine our product roadmaps, we rely on our DXS teammates to guide our cultural initiatives. The programming and planning we do will come from feedback from our teammates, and as a Culture Squad, we must always ensure we are meeting the team where they’re at.

Kabir Seth is the DXS COO and VP Product Strategy. Jillian Breitfeller is a program manager working across the WSJ DXS team. Both agree culture eats strategy for breakfast.

Thank you to the Culture Squad: Allison Foley, Andrea Kebalo, Annemarie Dooling, Anthony DeRosa, Emma Brown, Erica Stevens, Jillian Breitfeller, Kabir Seth, Kristen Cabrera, Marta Jakubanis, McKellen Rattray, Tania Feliz, and Thomas Williams.

Culture and Community in the Time of Coronavirus was originally published in WSJ Digital Experience & Strategy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

At The Wall Street Journal, we have a team of strategy leaders who work directly with reporters and editors to drive digital excellence. These editors recently dug deeply into more than a year’s worth of Journal coverage to identify what most resonates with our audiences. The Journal produces an incredible amount of terrific work every week. Our goal is to make sure it connects with as many people as possible.

We spent two weeks reading and tagging a random sample of 7,000 articles to give us a useful and tangible sense of what’s working. The breadth, depth and range of the storytelling often took our breath away. Here are some of our favorites:

Kevin Dubouis, Strategy Editor for World

'He Was Going to Change the World'

I read 1,000 articles from WSJ, and this is the story that I will remember: Lee Hawkins’ incredible reporting teaches us about the life and murder of Devon Wade. Informed by his own upbringing in a low-income Houston neighborhood, Devon was a promising Ph.D. student researching the consequences of poverty and incarceration on families, especially children. His mentors said he would change the world: “What’s so difficult for all of us is that we felt if anyone could escape these cycles of violence it would be someone as talented and kind as Devon.” This great piece helps preserve his legacy. Once you start reading it, there is no way you will be able to stop.

Chao Li, Strategy Editor for Weekend/Life & Arts

How the Conservatives Won

I really loved this interactive because it visualized who voted, how they voted, and it gave me a breakdown of the country by region. The interactive changes to a more detailed breakdown of votes by region, paired with an explanation of the modern and historical context of how people voted. I feel like this really helped me understand voting and regional politics in a different country, something I’m always fascinated by.

Becky Bowers, Strategy Editor for Washington

Amazon's Heavy Recruitment of Chinese Sellers Puts Consumers at Risk

This piece by Jon Emont, an enterprise reporter based in Singapore, is emblematic of WSJ’s deep reporting and reach around the globe. It doesn’t just highlight the way Amazon has “aggressively recruited Chinese manufacturers and merchants to sell to consumers outside the country.” It also identifies how they represent a high proportion of problem listings found on the site, which in turn squeeze American sellers who sell legitimate versions of those products. Amazon said it investigated the items, and some listings were taken down after the Journal’s reporting. The company added, “We work hard to stop bad actors before they can impact the shopping or selling experience in our store.”

The Journal’s package combines data reporting with shoe-leather interviews and portraits of real people and products to deeply explain the roots of a pernicious everyday problem. I needed to keep tagging, but I couldn’t stop reading. (My other fav: “The Secret to a Great Shirley Temple.” As charming as the actor herself!) )

Steve Russolillo, Strategy Editor for Corporate

Please Stay Home. Talk to Your Pets.

There is a reason Jason Gay is such a beloved WSJ writer. A sports and humor columnist, his words often have a lasting impact, no matter the subject. This one particularly stood out during our tagging exercise. It was published on March 15, right at the beginning of the pandemic. As the headline shows, only Jason could marry such a serious subject — “Please Stay Home” — with a lighter touch — “Talk to Your Pets.” Months into this pandemic, his words ring true more than ever.

Anthony DeRosa, Strategy Editor for U.S. News, Investigative, Special Projects

He Rescued His Grandchildren From Syria. Then He Lost Them Again.

This story stopped me in my tracks. We were reading 1,000 articles each, and needed to move fast, but I was engrossed by this harrowing and moving account about a father. Through a series of events, he locates, saves and ultimately loses his grandchildren. It began when his daughter, who defected to ISIS, was killed in one of the caliphate’s last battles. The story led me to follow up on the previous events we reported on throughout this series about the father. The photos, presentation, story, everything comes together in a captivating package.

Krista Kjellman Schmidt, Strategy Editor for Finance

A Cry for Help: Vigilantes Enlist Children to Fight Mexican Cartels

The first photograph–a boy, bandanna around his nose, mouth, and neck, holding a rifle, leading a line of more young boys–is arresting. The first sentence about how 13-year-old Luis Gustavo Morales can barely do basic math, but “already knows how to handle a shotgun nearly as tall as he is” is more so. This story, through its vivid words and photography, transports you to an indigenous village in the mountains of southern Mexico to understand the very real and difficult decision the community made in arming their children to fight the local drug cartel. The stakes are incredibly high–preserving the village’s independence from the cartel, the loss of 26 residents to murder in the last year. It’s stories like these that help you understand the stakes, understand the challenges, and realize we have so much work to do as a global community. (My other favorite: “How Google Edged Out Rivals and Built the World’s Dominant Ad Machine.” A great example of how using the right storytelling format at the right time can clearly illuminate the unfamiliar or complex. )

Leslie Yazel, Programming Strategy Editor

After He Fell for a $40K Phone Scam, His Bank Offered to Help-If He Stayed Quiet

This article, even without quoting the victim, puts a human face on what happens when a robocall results in a financial scam. It highlights the frustration people experience in trying to get their money back and how financial institutions can effectively silence people on this issue. The reporter spoke with the victim’s son in order to reveal his father’s story without violating the father’s NDA with the bank, and the 100-plus comments show the many emotions around this issue and the ongoing debate about who is responsible when fraud occurs.

Soph Warnes, Strategy Editor for Visuals

The Nest Egg Game: Your Life in 10 Financial Milestones

Graphics: I really like that this takes a fun and engaging approach to personal finance, and lays out different options for people to demonstrate how their “nest egg” changes based on important life decisions. It’s great to see something like this that has the ability to empower people to take control of their finances.

A Young Doctor Photographs the Coronavirus Crisis

Photos: I was blown away by these intimate photos of an intensive-care unit by Duncan Grossman, a young doctor who was reassigned to the unit. The photos show the chaotic rhythms of life in an ICU during the pandemic: urgent care and life-saving decisions juxtaposed with the banality of doctors scrolling through their phones in biohazard bags.

We Read 7,000 WSJ Articles in Two Weeks — and These Were the Most Memorable was originally published in WSJ Digital Experience & Strategy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Wall Street Journal is growing in exciting ways. We lead in journalism, breaking more stories than our peers, and we lead in audience trust, consistently coming in as the number one trusted news outlet in the country.

We are increasingly leading in digital innovation and product experience as well. As the recent award for General Excellence that the Journal received from the Online News Association says:

The Wall Street Journal accelerated its digital experimentation this year with the creation of new tools, products and engagement experiments, while exploring new forms of storytelling and creating ground-breaking partnerships.

Few places are investing as much as the Journal is in growing great teams, so if you are intrigued, check out our jobs below:

Product, Design, Engineering

Looking for candidates who can see the big picture and move our technology forward. Join a team of talented engineers to invent tomorrow’s technology platform that will best expand our editorial and product offerings and enrich our user’s online experience. Dominique Boucher, Director of Engineering

We’re searching for engineers who care just as much about the products they build and the customers who use them as the code they write. We want you to contribute your best ideas for how we can evolve our products, tools and technology right alongside our talented team of designers, journalists and product managers. Mike Finkel, VP of Engineering

• Senior iOS Software Engineer
• Senior Web Software Engineer
• Senior Full Stack Software Engineer
• Senior Software Engineer

Newsroom Data Strategy

The WSJ Newsroom Data Team’s mission is to deliver new, innovative insights and products to empower our editors, reporters, and content creators. Using data science and engineering, our goal is to seamlessly connect the newsroom to rich understandings of our audience and how they connect with our stories. Ross Fadely, Chief of Data Science

• Newsroom Data Engineer
• Audience Data Analyst

New and Young Audiences

We are looking for candidates that will help us build experiences and interactions to attract, retain and engage young audiences. We will be launching a digital publication for 18–34 year-olds that reflects and centers the voices and experiences of a diverse, smart and overwhelmed generation, helping them explore and navigate the world. Ethar El-Katatney, Young Audiences Editor

The New Audiences team is working to grow audiences for the WSJ. Our first set of projects focuses on growing readership and engagement with professional women, people of color and increasing financial literacy in America. We will experiment with content, story format and mobile delivery as new tools are built that allow readers to experience journalism that helps them in addition to providing information. We have a strong eye toward strategy on and off platform and consumption habits of different groups. Ebony Reed, New Audiences Chief

• Newsroom Developer (New Audiences)
• Newsroom Developer (Young Audiences)
• Audience Interaction Producer (posting to come)

Innovation and R&D

The Innovation team will explore ideas submitted from across the newsroom to create quick prototypes that will shape our storytelling and products. The team will not only focus on technical projects but also foster a community where experimenting is encouraged and ad hoc collaborations happen — we’ll succeed as a team when we enable all teams in WSJ and DowJones to contribute to newsroom innovation. John Schimmel, Director of Engineering, Newsroom Innovation

The Journal’s R&D team develops emerging computational journalism approaches to empower the newsroom with AI-powered tools. All our projects are designed to align with the overall strategy of the newsroom, and cooperation with other journalists is, therefore, crucial and very much desired. Francesco Marconi, R&D Chief

• Senior Product Designer (Innovation)
• Newsroom Innovation Chief
• Newsroom Developer (Innovation)
• Machine Learning Engineer (R&D)
• Data Science Internship (R&D)

Audience Voices

The Audience Voices team is leading the way in engaging WSJ’s audience, fostering thoughtful conversations around our journalism and highlighting reader voices in our coverage.We’re looking for an audience interactive producer with experience with live video. In addition to daily moderation of conversations, this producer will be developing real-time audience interaction engagement and curate multimedia packages from reader experiences. Josh Rivera, Audience Voices and Community Editor

• Audience Interaction Producer, Video/Audio, Nights/Weekends

The Wall Street Journal is Looking for New Talent Across Departments was originally published in WSJ Digital Experience & Strategy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Senior Web Software Developer

As part of a cross-functional agile software team, you will design, implement,and maintain our web applications in a highly collaborative environment. Apply here.

Two roles working on our content management system:

• Lead Software Engineer — React Apply here.
• Senior Software Engineer — WordPress Apply here.

Reporting interns are placed in various U.S. cities and, when appropriate, our bureaus in Europe and Asia. We’re also looking for talented video, visual and multimedia journalists to work with our graphics and video teams in New York.

We’re looking for students who have prior journalistic experience. Most of those chosen have interned with other media organizations and have worked on campus publication or as a freelancer.

Think you have what it takes? Apply via the links below.

Winter Reporting Internship Covering Science and Health Care

Summer reporting Internships in the Americas

Summer reporting Internships in Europe

Summer reporting Internships in Asia

Summer news Design/Graphics Internship

Summer graphics Internship

Summer video Internship

Summer 2018 Photography Internship

Here’s the WSJ team at ONA:

Carla Zanoni, Global Audience & Analytics Editor

Shazna Nessa, Deputy Managing Editor, Global Head of Visuals

Jennifer Hicks, Deputy Managing Editor Digital

Meg Marco, Editor, Digital Content Strategy

Aaron Zitner, Editor for Digital Projects and Digital Change

Tyler Chance, Product Manager, Editorial Tools

Leandro Oliva, Audience Engagement Editor

Greg Emerson, Mobile Product Manager

Michael Driscoll, Weekend Editor, WSJ.com

Katie Bindley, Personal Tech Reporter

Neesha Patel, Product Manager

Brittany Hite, Senior Mobile Editor

David Cole, Visuals Editor

Can’t wait to see you there. Meanwhile, check out our upcoming internship opportunities, as well as current job openings: http://on.wsj.com/2gbcGTs

The Wall Street Journal is looking for a talented motion graphics designer to join our team as an emerging media visuals producer. The journalist will create content for Snapchat Discover channel and work on social platforms. This person contributes to a team of editors and motion graphics designers producing news and features with a focus on visual storytelling and audience engagement. The New York-based role offers a chance to collaborate with reporters and editors across the global newsroom to bring our journalism to a new and growing audience.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Create strong visual content for social platforms such as Snapchat Discover and Instagram, collaborating with reporters and editors across the newsroom
• Contribute fresh ideas for ways to bring core Journal stories to a new audience
• Work with audience engagement editors to develop engagement-first strategies for social platforms

Skills and Qualifications:

• Advanced skills in Adobe After Effects or Motion
• Illustration skills: by hand or computer-assisted
• Ability to translate complicated ideas into visual stories
• Deep understanding and fluency on social platforms like Snapchat and Instagram
• Highly organized and able to pivot between daily deadlines and longer-term projects
• Ability to be both a team player and at times a team leader

To Apply:

• Send a resume and a brief cover letter with links to your portfolio or two to three projects that represent your work to kathryn.lurie@wsj.com

The Wall Street Journal is expanding its Audience and Emerging Media team in New York, bringing on analysts and strategists to help us reach new readers and deepen our engagement with loyal subscribers.

This key team is based in the heart of the newsroom, helping to shape strategy through data analysis and insight, executing pivotal audience engagement and development efforts and leading in platform experimentation.

The best job perk? Working everyday with the smartest journalists in the business.

Interested in joining us? Apply via the links below. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Junior Audience Analyst Associates (2 openings)

Technical SEO Associate

Product Analyst, Audience

Real-Time Audience Development/Audience Analyst

Junior Audience Development Associate

Video Audience Development Associate