Fitzpatrick returns to Wick to lead digital in new role

Sean Fitzpatrick is returning to a leadership role within Wick Communications and will take the newly created executive role as director of the digital for the company. He starts in his new role on March 7.“Sean’s skill set, coupled with his passions for the business and industry, adds to an already dynamic digital team and accelerates our go-forward strategies,” said Wick Communications CEO Francis Wick, who noted this is an exciting time for the company and the entire industry.Fitzpatrick is no stranger to the industry. He is a digital journalist and sales pioneer, migrating from his roots as a reporter in The Arizona Daily Star newsroom to helping it launch one of the first newspaper websites in the country in 1995.At The Star, he led a team of writers, designers, and programmers in some of the first digital journalism experiments and worked with advertisers to create native advertising campaigns before that strategy had a name.In addition to The Arizona Daily Star and Wick Communications, Sean has held digital media leadership positions for The Arizona Republic (Pulliam/Gannett) in Phoenix, the San Antonio Express-News (Hearst), KENS 5 (Belo) television and KOLD 13 (Raycom) television in Tucson, Ariz.In his most recent media leadership role, as director of digital media for KOLD 13's TucsonNewsNow.com, Fitzpatrick grew KOLD's Facebook audience from last to first in the market, created original social and native advertising initiatives, and led the newsroom to its first regional Edward R. Murrow Award for best website.Fitzpatrick has also held marketing technology leadership positions within the academic/science community at the Flandrau Science Center (University of Arizona) and the hospitality industry (Canyon Ranch). He has most recently been working as a user experience consultant and has designed and conducted hundreds of usability tests for clients across all industries."The ink in my veins only gets stronger the longer I'm away from newspapers, and I'm excited to return to Wick and the most fulfilling media position of my career," Fitzpatrick said. "I'm eager to apply the experiences I've gained in the business, science, technology and television fields to the benefit of our Wick newspapers and communities during this unique window of change and opportunity."