Yahoo announced the appointment of Kat Downs Mulder, a 14-year veteran of the Washington Post, as senior VP and GM of Yahoo News, one of the biggest news and information sites in the U.S.
At the Washington Post, Downs Mulder most recently served as chief product officer and managing editor of the publication, which is now owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Downs Mulder as GM of Yahoo News will oversee global products, editorial and strategy for the content vertical, which including the Yahoo homepage, news, entertainment and lifestyle content. She reports to Yahoo president of home ecosystem Matt Sanchez.
“Kat is recognized for innovating in one of the world’s top newsrooms against the backdrop of a rapidly changing digital environment,” Sanchez said. “Her blend of news and technology expertise is the perfect fit as we advance Yahoo News and continue to bring trusted content and experiences to our readers.”
For the past two years, Downs Mulder had overseen the Washington Post’s visual and audio journalism, audience development, emerging news products, curation and distribution, along with the product and design teams focused on the development of the Post’s website, app, subscriptions and internal tools. Before that, she served as VP product and design, where she oversaw the user experience across homepage, articles pages, newsletters and apps. Downs Mulder also led the Post’s graphics department for nearly five years.
“My time leading news, product and engineering highlights the importance of evolving as the industry changes,” Downs Mulder said in a statement. “I look forward to being part of this next chapter of Yahoo’s journey as we develop products and services that will shape the future of how people get their information.”
Yahoo News was previously overseen by Lori Bongiorno, former GM of Yahoo News, Entertainment, Lifestyle and Makers, who left the company and is now an executive at Information Overload Research Group (IORG).
Verizon sold Yahoo last year for $5 billionto private-equity firm Apollo Group.Yahoo says it reaches nearly 900 million users worldwide. Last month, Yahoo announced its first acquisition under Apollo’s ownership, buying the Factual, which developed an algorithm-based system for rating news articles with a “media bias” and credibility score.
Yahoo is led by CEO Jim Lanzone, formerly head of Tinder and CBS Interactive. Earlier this year, Lanzone hiredTapan Bhatas president and GM of Yahoo Finance to oversee the company’s financial and business vertical, marking his return to the internet media company after more than a decade.
