Matt DeRienzo

Matt DeRienzo has more than 30 years’ experience in journalism as a reporter, editor, publisher, teacher and nonprofit leader, and has advised local news startups across the country.

Most recently, he was editor in chief of the Center for Public Integrity, a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit dedicated to confronting inequality in the United States through investigative reporting. During his tenure, the organization was recognized with some of journalism’s highest honors, including a Peabody Award nomination and national Edward R. Murrow Awards for General Excellence, Investigative Reporting and Feature Writing.

Previously, he was vice president of news for Hearst’s newspapers in Connecticut and served as the first full-time executive director of LION, a nonprofit supporting publishers of local independent online news outlets across the country.

In Connecticut, he led a team of more than 100 journalists in covering the mass murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School. His leadership of the New Haven Register was recognized with the Robert G. McGruder Award for Leadership in Newsroom Diversity, and his work with community engagement, including opening a daily newspaper’s newsroom to the public with a café and meeting space, was recognized with the Associated Press Managing Editors’ Innovator of the Year Award.