Jim Davidson Named President of Examiner.com

DENVER, March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Examiner.com, the insider source for everything local, has named industry technology leader Jim Davidson as its President. Davidson, who has been consulting with Examiner.com since the summer of 2009, joins the team at its Denver, CO office.

Davidson brings nearly 20 years of industry experience to Examiner.com. While serving as the Vice President of Web Services and Publishing for AOL, Davidson developed and drove technology, workflow and process to support the company's migration to the open Web as well as playing a major role in its local content network, Digital City (AOL Local). More recently, Davidson served as lead investor, board member and CEO for Laborfair.com, a social venture focused on low-cost advertising solutions for low income, offline service providers. Additionally, he served as CTO for Nextumi, developer of the highly successful and popular online sharing service, ShareThis.com.

"I've had the pleasure of working with Jim for a number of years," said Rick Blair, CEO of Examiner.com. "Jim is an outstanding leader and advocate of technology solutions, coupled with superior business and communication skills. His knowledge and passion for online communities and extraordinary vision for Examiner.com will further strengthen our company's position as a technology leader and world-class provider of online content."

As a consultant for Examiner.com, Davidson was a key participant in the acquisition of NowPublic in September 2009, and his immediate focus is on the company's re-launch to the Drupal platform. This move will make Examiner.com the largest online content provider leveraging the flexibility and power of Drupal's open source technology.

The new Examiner.com site will be unveiled this spring and will provide its 30,000 plus contributors with state-of-the-art tools to publish multi-media content, while also adding robust community tools to further engage Examiner.com's 18 million readers.

"I am excited to join Examiner.com full time, particularly at this point in its evolution," said Davidson. "In my role as President I will maximize our opportunities with technology and content, and with our contributors, consumers and partners, while continuously socializing the power of our platform and business model.  I look forward to working with the exceptional team at Examiner.com."

Known as Examiners, contributors to Examiner.com are passionate local insiders who offer a range of viewpoints on just about any topic, from local events and entertainment calendars to local trends and activities.  With plans to hit 85,000 Examiners by the end of 2010, Examiner.com is actively recruiting individuals who are passionate about their interests and areas of knowledge. Examiner.com carefully vets each of its Examiners and provides them an optimized home on the Web, with access to publishing tools, Web training and a live help desk. If you have what it takes, this rapidly-growing Web site is currently recruiting within each of its 240 editions, across 25 categories.

More information on becoming an Examiner is available at: http://www.examiner.com/about_examiner/?CID=pr_JGD

About Examiner.com: Launched in April 2008, Examiner.com serves 240 markets across North America and is the insider source for everything local. Examiner.com feeds the passion the local community has for its favorite interests, activities, and establishments by connecting them with credible and informed contributors who write and share information with the passion and insights only a local insider can provide. Examiner.com is a division of the Clarity Digital Group, LLC, wholly owned by The Anschutz Company, a Denver-based investment company with a broad array of assets in print and digital media; live sports and entertainment; hospitality; film production and exhibition; wind energy development and transmission; as well as ranching and oil/gas exploration. For more information, visit Examiner.com.

SOURCE Examiner.com