ProPublica announced the hiring of Melody Kramer as a product manager, working on crowdsourcing and engagement tools, from secure tiplines to source databases. Kramer started in December 2024.
Previously, she worked in digital strategy and audience engagement for newsrooms, the federal government and the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that runs Wikipedia. She started her career as a humor writer and director for NPR’s “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me.”
Most recently, she helped lead a pop-up newsroom to support journalists in Western North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, providing critical text-only information to residents who lost internet access. And she was the librarian-in-residence for the Knight Election Hub, where she connected journalists with academic election experts.
Kramer completed a Nieman Visiting Fellowship looking at alternative models of membership in public radio. For many years, she wrote a column for Poynter focused on news innovation.
Kramer has a library degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she focused on digital archiving.
“Mel has inspired many of us for years,” said Ariana Tobin, ProPublica’s crowdsourcing and engagement team editor. “We’re so excited about the possibilities now that she’s on board, from the communities we’ll be able to connect with to the stories we’ll be able to tell on their behalf. This is a total dream.”
“It’s an honor to join ProPublica and support the newsroom and mission,” Kramer said. “I’m looking forward to building tools and infrastructure that will supercharge the engagement work ProPublica does to fuel important accountability-focused journalism.”
