Crooked Media has expanded its executive leadership team ahead of the 2024 election cycle, the political media company has announced, with a number of new hires and promotions focused on growing its news coverage capacity.
Madeline Haeringer, former senior vice president of editorial for NBC News, has been appointed to executive vice president and general manager of news and programming, while Reid Cherlin, former NBC News managing editor for podcasts, has been appointed executive producer for politics. Haeringer and Cherlin will work together to lead Crooked’s podcast strategy, which will include new content expansions and breaking news coverage.
Crooked Media’s slate of original podcasts includes a number of hit news and politics podcasts such as its “Pod Save…” franchise, America Dissected, Strict Scrutiny, Lovett or Leave It, and more. Both Haeringer and Cherlin have experience overseeing hit podcasts with Haeringer having led NBC’s audio business and Cherlin having overseen the production of award-winning podcasts like Southlake and American Radical.
“We are thrilled to expand our executive leadership team with these amazingly talented and smart individuals,” said Crooked Media CEO Lucinda Treat. “We are always working to tell impactful and important stories, expand our slate of programming, and attract the next wave of Crooked fans to the network, and I know this team will help us do all of these things.”
“We look forward to informing and getting people involved as we head towards 2024.”
Others who will be joining the Crooked Media news team as producers under Haeringer and Cherlin’s leadership include former Atlantic journalist and producer Alyona Minkovski, former Los Angeles Times podcast producer David Toledo, and former Gimlet Media producer Farrah Safari.
In addition to expanding its news and politics team, Crooked Media has appointed creative development executive Dariush Brizuela-Nothaft as senior vice president of community and partnerships to lead the team and focus on building up the Friends of the Pod subscription community, as well as building out supporting revenue channels like e-commerce and live events. Brizuela-Nothaft has over 10 years of experience in the industry and has previously held other senior positions including head of content for digital entertainment company SoulPancake and vice president of audio strategy for Maker Studios.
Crooked Media launched its tiered subscription offering in May this year via podcast subscription platform Supercast, which allows fans to subscribe across three monthly membership tiers - ‘Friends’ for $6.29 (£5), ‘Friends with Benefits’ for $8.99 (£7.23), or ‘Best Friends’ for $19.99 (£26.07). Fans can also choose to pay for yearly subscriptions at a discounted rate.
Additionally, Crystal Ponzio-Busto has been promoted to executive vice president of marketing, continuing to lead the marketing, communications, and content development team and overseeing the podcasts’ marketing strategy. Ponzio-Busto has worked at Crooked Media for two years, after previously serving as director of global marketing for Netflix and content marketing manager for Hulu.
