Twelve years at Lonely Planet
From destination editor to Content Operations Leader: five roles, three organizational transformations, and one constant: making content organizations ready for what comes next.
Career highlights
Work history
Senior Editorial Director
Lonely Planet
Lead content operations for a 20-person organization: two managing editors (development, with two direct reports; and contributor strategy and standards), 13 destination editors, and an app project manager with two contract reports. The role connects editorial leadership, product development, and platform strategy.
- Led the app's editorial plan for Best in Travel 2027 (September 2026): re-sequenced the August–December release schedule around app demand and destination readiness, and made the app the trip-planning layer instead of forcing all 50 picks into the app
- Own the rollout of editorial AI governance, including Lonely Planet's published editorial AI policy, contributor-facing guidance, and QA guardrails such as sampling AI article summaries before publication and labeling them clearly
- Drafted operating models that give every major content stream a clear owner and decision rights, including a development workflow for illustrated books that moves creative and commercial decisions earlier
- Extending the structured content model to new guidebook formats, mapping print structures such as top sights, short-stay itineraries, and tours into reusable content types
- Accountable for the $4M books budget and co-own the $1M app and digital budget with another director
- Pitched and secured leadership approval, budget, and schedule for the 2027 guidebook relaunch, built on reader research and a board-level roadmap; new formats rolling out since September 2026
- Coached a team of five senior editors into manager roles
- Serve as a company spokesperson, including a 2026 Fox 10 Phoenix segment on budget travel
Editorial Director, Content Product
Lonely Planet
Led content-model, CMS, and mobile-app work across Editorial, Product, Engineering, Design, and external partners.
- Designed the POI-based Contentful architecture and app content model, structuring 200k+ POIs within a 730k+ entity single-source platform for print, web, app, and future discovery surfaces
- Led the Contentful implementation with Engineering, Product, and third-party teams, transitioning from EPAM/external-consultant dependency toward internal ownership
- Prioritized and scoped a guidebook-to-app editing automation built by Engineering, reducing manual editing work
- Directed content operations and editorial strategy for the January 2026 mobile app launch, making Editorial a product-development partner through release planning and cross-functional launch coordination
- Across Managing Editor and Editorial Director roles, grew the core Destination Editor team from 9 to 13 direct reports between 2022 and 2025
Managing Editor, Destinations Content
Lonely Planet
Led content strategy through the travel-industry rebound and the organization's early response to AI-driven search disruption.
- Drove 164% destination sessions growth and 46% overall traffic growth in the 2023 rebound by shifting strategy toward international destinations and tighter SEO-content alignment
- Built commissioning workflows that return 170+ instrumented hours annually, reduce manual data transmission, and move contract processing from days to minutes
- Merged US and international destination editorial teams into a single operation with shared standards and workflows
- Led the team through the later 20% AI-search decline by investing in differentiated local expertise and maintaining production quality
Senior Editor, Homepage
Lonely Planet
Curated content for the lonelyplanet.com homepage (500k monthly visitors), working with design and technology teams on editorial and interactive projects.
- Built a contributor database of ~1,000 writers weighted toward global diversity and destination expertise, improving coverage of historically underrepresented regions
- Launched new formats, including podcasts, video series, and features, expanding audience engagement beyond traditional articles
- Led editors and copyeditors on SEO-driven content and established standards balancing search performance with brand voice
Managing Editor, US Magazine
Lonely Planet
Managed copyeditors and designers delivering a quarterly print magazine with a 125,000 rate base; served as company spokesperson for media appearances.
- Represented Lonely Planet in TV and radio interviews during Best in Travel campaign launches
- Co-led a front-of-book redesign to sharpen content presentation across print and digital editions
- Aligned the editorial calendar with subscription, sales, and company objectives
Destination Editor
Lonely Planet
Supervised digital and print content for Canada and the Western US, including guidebook production and video content.
- Planned and commissioned 35 guidebooks, from author selection through publication
- Produced video for destination coverage and brand partnerships, extending the offering beyond print and web
- Collaborated across sales, PR, marketing, and trade teams to align content strategy with commercial priorities