Jim Brady

Jim Brady is principal of Spirited Media Consulting. He served as vice president of Journalism at Knight Foundation from 2021 to 2025, and oversaw Knight’s journalism portfolio of more than $250 million. During his tenure, Brady was instrumental in developing the strategic framework behind Press Forward, a $500 million effort to revitalize local news in the United States. A longtime digital media innovator and executive, Brady guided Knight’s investments in sustainable and scalable local news business models that allowed for revenue diversification, market expansion, strategic partnerships and innovative product development.

Brady has spent 38 years in journalism, more than 30 in digital. He previously served as executive editor of washingtonpost.com, editor in chief at Digital First Media, executive director of news and sports at AOL and public editor at ESPN. He’s also an entrepreneur who bootstrapped the local news startup Spirted Media, which operated Billy Penn in Philadelphia, The Incline in Pittsburgh and Denverite before a successful exit. He’s consulted for legacy and digital publishers; worked with print, broadcast and digital operations; managed editorial, product, technology and revenue teams; and experienced three mergers, three company sales, two bankruptcies and countless reorganizations. 

Brady was on the launch team of washingtonpost.com in 1996 and is a past president of the Online News Association, a two-time judge of the Pulitzer Prizes, and currently serves on the boards of the International Media Women’s Foundation and Media Impact Funders. He is a 1989 graduate of American University with a degree in print journalism.