Katie V Smith
The Di5ru.pt blog

Katie Vanneck-Smith, Co-founder of Tortoise Media, talked to Ashley Norris ahead of the FIPP World Media Congress, where she will be one of more than 50 speakers. Congress is organised and hosted by Di5rupt.

Tortoise Media is a slow media news platform that is committed to looking at what is driving the news and is built on a membership model that is inclusive and open.

In this interview, she tells Ashley about the company’s beginnings (Tortoise is now 4 years old), developments through pandemic lockdowns, podcasts, subscriptions, their new intelligence/index division, and more.

Katie brings to her role at Tortoise a wealth of experience. Prior to her new adventure as an entrepreneur, she was the President of Dow Jones and Publisher of The Wall Street Journal, where she led the company to over 3m subscribers, the largest number in WSJ history.

She has previously worked at the Telegraph Media Group and The Times, where, as Chief Marketing Officer, she was the architect of the newspaper’s early move to paid digital subscriptions.

She created the UK’s first news membership brand, Times+, and oversaw the events programmes, including both the Wall Street Journal CEO Council and the Times CEO Summit. She was named Pioneer of the Year at the British Media Awards. She is vice-patron of the charity, Family Action and a Strategic Adviser to Big Change.

Katie will share her insights at FIPP World Media Congress in Cascais, back for the first time as an in-person event again since the 2019 Congress in Las Vegas. Hear from and meet her in Cascais!

Read the full pre-Congress interview with her on FIPP.com, here.