Commack, NY - August 16th, 2016 - Long Island Media, Inc. parent company of Long Island’s most popular websites, including LongIsland.com, LongIslandExchange.com, and NewsLI.com, has proudly announced that their Editor-in-Chief, Cait Russell, has been promoted to the newly-created position of Director of Operations. The move is a logical professional evolution that mirrors her five years of hard work and devotion to developing LongIsland.com – Long Island’s Most Popular Website Since 1996 – and its affiliated network of websites into the huge success that they are today.
A Kings Park native and SUNY Purchase graduate, Russell started with Long Island Media in 2011, having initially applied for a Sales Position with the company.
“I was moving back to my hometown after living in Nassau County for a while, and I saw an opening for Long Island Media, Inc. in Kings Park, which caught my eye,” she said. “I was excited to see an opportunity that I was well suited for in my hometown, and so I took a leap of faith and applied."
However, that Sales position was soon left far behind once Russell’s unique talents made themselves readily apparent, and within six months she found herself spearheading content-related projects for LongIsland.com, including developing page content, drafting a weekly newsletter and writing articles. LongIsland.com had only been purchased by Long Island Media the year before, so many of the projects that Russell was involved in had not been established by that point, so she truly found herself discovering – and thriving in – new territory.
From there, Russell took over LongIsland.com’s Facebook Page; at the time it had an anemic following of less than 500, but due to her tireless efforts that number has swelled to over 58,000 as of August 2016. She can also boast of similar successes on other social media outlets, such as Twitter , Pinterest, Google Plus, and Instagram.
Russell also reached out to the communities that were the very lifeblood of Long Island Media, seeing the need for and establishing strategic partnerships with local Chambers of Commerce, and cutting-edge business organizations such as HIA-LI, while also creating good will by getting Long Island Media involved in charity work benefiting groups such as Island Harvest.
However, Russell’s accomplishments don’t end there - she also is the mastermind behind the launches of some of LongIsland.com’s most highly-trafficked sections, creating its well-known Things to Do Section, as well as a whole host of themed guides – including holiday, seasonal, towns, and more – covering almost every conceivable aspect of the things that make Long Island such a unique place to live, work, and play.
In addition, Russell is also behind the launch of LongIsland.com’s industry-known weather coverage, which won a prestigious Folio Award in 2016 from media watchdog group Fair Media Council.
“Hurricane Sandy happened only about 18 months after I had started at Long Island Media, and it was really devastating to the community. Our team did the best we could to cover what we could - getting emergency information out there, and ensuring locals could find the need-to-know updates that were vital at the time,” she said.
“Since then, this type of coverage has always remained a priority to us, and when inclement weather is on the horizon, Long Islanders know that they can turn to LongIsland.com for breaking storm coverage, school closures, emergency alerts, and all of the important local weather updates.”
Russell said that her experience with Long Island Media has paved the way for tremendous professional and personal growth, and that she looks upon the past with great pride and a feeling of accomplishment, and towards the future with ambition, and a unifying sense of teamwork and hard work, underlying the even greater successes to come to Long Island Media.
"I have greatly enjoyed having the opportunity to grow with Long Island Media, Inc. and LongIsland.com over the past five years - making the transition from Account Manager, to Content Creator, to Editor in Chief, and now my new role, Director of Operations, has been not only exciting, but tremendously satisfying on a personal level,” she said.
“Our entire team has worked very hard to revitalize LongIsland.com, and to create important, insightful content for all of our sites, and I am very proud of everything we've achieved, and how much we have grown as a company since I began here in 2011. I am very much looking forward to the new challenges and opportunities ahead in helping Long Island Media reach its full potential as its Director of Operations."
Long Island Media Chief Executive Officer John Colascione noted that, despite only having worked with Russell for just under a year so far since joining the operation in 2015, he has been so impressed and taken with her drive, determination, and attention to detail. Even in such a short frame of time, he felt that she was ready to take her efforts to the next level and, in turn, drive the success of Long Island Media even further into the future.
"I would like to openly congratulate Cait on her promotion from Editor-in-Chief to Director of Operations. This new position and title much more accurately represent her role, hard work, dedication and persistence to perfection when it comes to our company, with both its operations and image,” he said.
“I can honestly say that I have never before assigned a title that more accurately fit and described the role of an employee. Thank you, Cait, for all of your hard work through the years – even though I was not here for all of them – and your continual dedication to Long Island Media, Inc.”
About Long Island Media Inc.
Long Island Media, Inc. owns and operates the largest privately held network of Long Island based web sites on the internet. The company owns LongIsland.com, and has acquired most of Long Island’s original web portals; websites specifically focused on Long Island New York.
Reaching over one million monthly visitors, Long Island Media‘s online-only publications providing Long Islanders with a wealth of news, business information, and resources for planning activities in the area. No matter what type of business you own, or what local demographic you're trying to reach, if you're targeting Long Islanders, Long Island Media must be part of your marketing mix.