After spending more than three years helping grow Starbucks’ digital news operation, Linda Thomas is shifting gears to do something similar at another Seattle-based corporate giant.
The longtime journalist took a new job at Amazon last month as the director of Amazon Stories, where she’ll be “telling global stories about Amazon,” according to her Twitter profile @TheNewsChick.
Thomas declined to comment on her new role at Amazon; the company also did not provide more details when contacted by GeekWire.
How is this week 3 of my new @amazon journey already? Great people, great challenge ahead ? pic.twitter.com/NTfRLM3B4y
— Linda Thomas (@TheNewsChick) January 30, 2017
Amazon has published stories about its sellers, authors, and others for several years. But the hiring of Thomas may signal that Amazon wants to amplify the stories it tells about itself to the public.
A well-known media personality in Seattle, Thomas spent four years as a morning news host and digital journalist at KIRO Radio before leaving in January 2014 to join Starbucks, where she helped lead the company’s digital news and content strategies.
From Thomas’ LinkedIn page:
In 2014, Thomas defined Starbucks online news and content strategy by establishing the first Starbucks Newsroom. As editor-in-chief of the company’s award-winning digital newsroom, she directed team members who practice journalistic storytelling on behalf of the company to earn and keep an audience’s trust and attention.
During her time at Starbucks, the coffee giant built out what is essentially its own news operation, with not only traditional press releases but also longer-form pieces and videos that tell the stories of Starbucks’ products, services, employees, customers, and more. The company also unveiled its first-ever original content series in September and debuted its own animated series in December.
Back in the day, businesses would typically need to work with traditional news media to have their stories told to the public. But being able to publish content online — whether it’s written stories, photos, videos, etc. — coupled with a huge social following (Starbucks has nearly 50 million combined followers on Facebook and Twitter) enables a company like Starbucks to control their own original messages.
Thomas wasn’t the only former journalist that Starbucks hired in recent years to build out its content team; Seattle Post-Intelligencer veteran Joshua Trujillo joined the company in October 2015 as senior manager for photo and video for Starbucks Digital News.
We’ll see if Amazon follows Starbucks and doubles down on its digital content production. The company just created the Twitter account @amazonnews last month as it brought on Thomas to lead its storytelling efforts.
Amazon employs more than 341,000 employees and racked up nearly $44 billion in sales last quarter.
As the tech giant continues to grow, it seems to be paying more attention to its public perception, particularly given that Amazon has carried a reputation of being standoffish and tight-lipped for much of its existence.
John Schoettler, Amazon’s director of global real estate and facilities and a 16-year employee, told GeekWire in a story on the company’s engagement in the Seattle area that “we haven’t necessarily told our story very well.”
Perhaps Thomas’ hiring is one step toward helping to fix that problem.
