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Axios Local
Media Advisory
For immediate release: April 28, 2022
1 big thing: Axios Hires Delano Massey as Managing Editor of Axios Local
Massey joins as Axios Local prepares to launch new markets and expands newsroom
Why it matters: Massey will lead the Axios Local newsroom alongside Executive Editor Jamie Stockwell as Axios Local adds 14 newsletters in the coming months. Axios has hired nearly 20 journalists to the Axios Local newsroom in 2022.
Get to know Delano Massey: Delano Massey joins from CNN where he led CNN's Race and Equality team, and served as a supervising producer. Massey was previously a deputy news director at the Associated Press in Chicago, Ill., digital director at WEWS in Cleveland, Ohio, and metro editor for the Herald-Leader in Lexington, Ky.

CNN
In 2019, CNN tapped Delano Massey to lead its Justice coverage in Washington, D.C. He did that and also led supplies coverage during a global pandemic. Then, in the throes of a racial reckoning, he created the network’s Race & Equality team, a hybrid unit providing news for all platforms. Massey helped recruit, interview, and select the team members. For more than a year, he juggled two demanding beats, helping to lead legal coverage surrounding the 2020 election, the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, and pushing the network into the right place on Race coverage as tensions simmered. Massey has worked across several different platforms at CNN. In June 2020, CNN Audio ​launched "Silence Is Not an Option," a podcast hosted by Don Lemon that dives into race in America. Massey assisted the team with editorial, helping to build a meaningful discussion on a topic that isn't always easy to discuss. 
AP
The Associated Press hired Massey to help the wire service make a successful digital transition in a quickly changing industry. In the fall of 2016, he became Ohio news editor, helping that team become more thoughtful about video and social media. The Ohio team reset news priorities, redefined beats and adjusted staffing hours. Massey worked with other news editors to educate journalists in AP's East region, one of its largest cluster of bureaus, on everything from promotions to best practices for social media. Then AP sent Massey to Chicago to help lead coverage in the Midwest region, which has bureaus from Texas to North Dakota. As the head of storytelling, he built the video hub for AP TV, established a multimedia workflow, and rebooted the fellowship program for aspiring journalists. Massey was also running point as a leader on AP's Race & Ethnicity team, working hand-in-hand with the team's creator, Sonya Ross. Together, they launched several major projects, including a project on athletes and activism and a look at the Red Summer of 1919.

Some of the work

RECENT WORKEDITING WORK

​PAST WORK

JUSTICE
How Ruth Bader Ginsburg's unlikely friendship began
US Capitol secured, 4 dead after rioters stormed the halls of Congress to block Biden's win  
Capitol riot investigators narrow in on extremist groups and military-style coordination  
Pipe bombs found near Capitol on January 6 were placed the night before, FBI says 
Members of extremist Oath Keepers group planned attack on US Capitol, prosecutors say  
Five people associated with Proud Boys arrested for Capitol riot on conspiracy charges 
Supreme Court dismisses challenge to Affordable Care Act, leaving it in place 
Attorney General William Barr suggests charging violent protesters with sedition 
William Barr says there is no evidence of widespread fraud in presidential election 
Private group wants to build border wall on US government land and donate 

RACE
Civil rights protesters from the 1950s and 1960s
Cities reckon with past atrocities against Black people but experts say it won't cause actual reform 
​Jacob Blake's sister at March on Washington: 'Black America, I hold you accountable'
A mother murdered. Her toddler missing. And the family left to search for her year after year 
Families of Emmett Till and George Floyd bond over shared tragedies
George Floyd's brother bonds with Emmett Till's cousin over brutal, public deaths decades apart 
'It's hard': CEO of Black-owned funeral home plans Wright's funeral 
CNN exclusive: Four families connected by pain are hoping to use their influence to get out the vote 
Black Americans are #sickandtired of the lack of justice for police killings. The Breonna Taylor
decision is yet another disappointment
Weeping resounded from the room where Breonna Taylor's mother learned the grand jury's decision.
​An all-Black group is arming itself and demanding change. They are the NFAC 
​How Miles Morales in his own Spider-Man video game confronts racial disparity in gaming 

COVID
America's biggest cities face racial inequities in vaccine distribution
​Exclusive: 'I don't think anybody was ready for this Covid,' says head of federal prisons 
Their communities are deserted by pharmacies. Advocates fear this will lead to inequitable vaccine access 
Black women are more likely to die from pregnancy complications than any other demographic group, the CDC says 
(November 2019)
Fifty years ago, Native Americans began a monthslong occupation at Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay. The demonstration had far-reaching effects for tribes, galvanizing activists, raising awareness of conditions on reservations and spurring a shift in federal policy toward self-determination.
IMMIGRATION
A joint investigation by The Associated Press and FRONTLINE has found that the Trump administration is actively shifting the caretaking of migrant children from mostly religious-based nonprofits toward the private sector. (Oct. 3)
(July 2019)
​Hundreds of African Americans died in a little known spate of white mob violence a century ago. A look back at the Red Summer attacks and the communities where they occurred, from a small town in Elaine, Arkansas to Chicago, Illinois and many places in between.
Black athletes have long history of not sticking to sports
(February 2018)
African-American athletes have used their sports platforms for more than 100 years to impact social and political change. As part of AP’s coverage plans for Black History Month, we took multiplatform look at how many have and continue to engage in activism, from Jack Johnson, to Muhammad Ali to Colin Kaepernick. 
We began looking into this matter after it became clear that football and race had collided. Pre-game protests were dividing fans along color lines and making Sunday afternoons among the most segregated hours in the country.
Some fans wanted these athletes to stick to sports, but history told us that has never been the case. We took a look at this refusal to "shut up and play" through every era -- from Jim Crow to civil rights and, finally, the Black Lives Matter movement.
Segregation lingers in US schools 60 years after Little Rock
(Sept. 24, 2017)
​Three years after “separate but equal” was declared unconstitutional in America’s public schools, nine black teenagers had to be escorted by federal troops through an angry white mob before they could finally attend Central High School. Sixty years ago, the Little Rock Nine became a symbol of heroism in the throes of racial progress, but their bravery made many whites dig their heels in further to maintain segregated schools. While legal segregation has ended, today the milestone is a reminder of how few of the country’s white and minority children are learning alongside each other. 
America still in turmoil a year after Kaepernick’s protest
​(Aug. 20, 2017)
What started as a protest against police brutality mushroomed a year later into a divisive debate over the future of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. The once-rising star and Super Bowl quarterback had been unemployed since March 2017, when he opted out of his contract and became a free agent who could sign with any team. Few NFL clubs had openly discussed the idea of signing him, but the embattled quarterback had yet to receive a contract offer with training camps well underway. On the opposing end of a wide range of opinions, some fans said Kaepernick shouldn’t have sat or kneeled during the national anthem, while others argued the quarterback’s lack of a job is more about his talent. Just weeks away from the regular season, he became a symbol of the clash of celebrity, sports and social issues as more people _including players, fans, politicians, team owners and pundits _ invoke his name to debate thorny issues of patriotism and race. 

AP, OHIO NEWS EDITOR

RAY TENSING TRIAL

Charges dropped in Ohio police shooting of unarmed black man
(July 25, 2017)
A judge in Cincinnati on Monday dismissed the charges against a white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black motorist during a traffic stop, after a county prosecutor declined to pursue a third murder trial in the case... 

A look at high-profile police-related deaths of US blacks
(June 10, 2017)
Police officers are on trial in Ohio and Minnesota for fatal shootings of black motorists during traffic stops.
In both cases, prosecutors say the officers didn’t need to respond with deadly force. The officers both have testified they felt threatened...

Attitudes, legal standards help make police convictions rare
​(June 22, 2017)
In the three years since fatal police shootings of unarmed black people launched the Black Lives Matter movement, few officers have been charged and none has been convicted by juries in the highest-profile deaths that inspired protests across the country...

OTTO WARMBIER 

To North Korea and back: Otto Warmbier’s strange, sad trip
(Jun. 18, 2017)​
Over and over, Otto Warmbier apologized and begged — at first calmly, then choking up and finally in tears — to be reunited with his family. North Korean officials seated at long tables watched impassively, with cameras rolling and journalists taking notes, as the adventuresome, accomplished 21-year-old college student from suburban Cincinnati talked animatedly about the “severe crime” that had put him there: trying to take a propaganda banner for someone back home, supposedly in return for a used car and to impress a semi-secret society he wanted to join, and all under the supposed direction of the U.S. government.
US student freed by North Korea in a coma dies at age 22
​(​Jun. 20, 2017)
Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was released by North Korea in a coma last week after almost a year and a half in captivity, died Monday, his family said. The 22-year-old “has completed his journey home,” relatives said in a statement. They did not cite a specific cause of death.
Student detained in N Korea is mourned at hometown funeral 
​(Jun. 22, 2017)
Celebrating the life of an American college student who was detained in North Korea for over a year and died shortly after returning home in a coma, a packed crowd of mourners gathered Thursday as Otto Warmbier’s loved ones shared stories about his affinity for hugs, thrift-store clothes-shopping and little-known rap music...

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY ATTACK 

Terrorism suspected in car-and-knife attack at Ohio State
(Nov. 29, 2016)
A Somali-born Ohio State University student plowed his car into a group of pedestrians on campus and then got out and began stabbing people with a butcher knife Monday before he was shot to death by a police officer. Police said they were investigating whether it was a terrorist attack. Eleven people were hurt, one critically...

​Fast-acting Ohio State officer praised for killing attacker
​(Nov. 28, 2016)
Officials on Monday praised an Ohio State University police officer who shot and killed a man a minute after he drove his car into a crowd and then stabbed multiple people...

​Ohio State attacker stewed over treatment of fellow Muslims(Nov. 30, 2016)
A Somali-born student who carried out a car-and-knife attack at Ohio State University stewed over the treatment of Muslims while apparently staying under the radar of federal law enforcement, underscoring the difficulty authorities face in identifying and stopping lone wolves bent on violence.

TWITTER AMPLIFY

In 2017, top managers in The Associated Press tapped me to help lead a pilot program with Twitter Amplify, which monetizes native video on Twitter.com.

​After coordinating with Twitter, members from AP’s business side and our social media director, we launched in April 2017. This was challenging in practice because AP did not have a large amount of video on reserve.

We started working with staffers in the west region, slowly making our way to the south, central and east regions. Four months later, Amplify has been rolled out to AP’s four regional Twitter accounts, sports, business and health and science and, most recently, Europe.
​

SOCIAL PROMOTIONS

DIGITAL NEWS DIRECTOR 

In June 2016, LeBron James led the Cleveland Cavaliers to its first NBA title and an estimated 1.3 million people took to the streets of downtown to celebrate the historic accomplishment. Later that same summer, the city welcomed guests from far and wide for the Republican National Convention. I coordinated coverage across platforms, working with my peers on two major events for the station -- and Northeast Ohio.
“You can only become accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you."  
- Maya Angelou