About Bill Thornton

I help publishers, content organizations, and product teams simplify editorial workflows, modernize content platforms, and make practical decisions about AI.

I spent more than two decades leading product work in news and digital media. Now, through Bite Size Elephant, I help teams decide what should change first, plan the work, and lead delivery when they need extra capacity.

Where I've worked

These are roles I held as an employee, before Bite Size Elephant. They are not client engagements.

  1. 2022 to 2025

    Dow Jones

    VP of Product Management, News Platforms

  2. 2019 to 2021

    HZ

    Director of Product

  3. 2009 to 2019

    Gannett/USA TODAY NETWORK

    Director of Product Management, among other roles

    Led the USA TODAY redesign.

Earlier work includes AOL's search products and Stephen King's website.

Research in the American Economic Review found prior experience in a specific industry predicts much greater rates of entrepreneurial success.
Source: Azoulay, Jones, Kim, Miranda, "Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review: Insights (2020)

What I do now

Consulting

The GrafStack audit for newsrooms, workflow and platform strategy, product strategy and AI planning, and interim product leadership.

Services

Products I own

MemoryWeaver and WhereToAdvisor, built and supported by me.

Products

Case example: one platform for eight newsrooms

The problem
Eight Dow Jones newsrooms, including WSJ, Barron's, and MarketWatch, worked across more than 15 content tools. Each tool added steps and handoffs between teams. Three separate tools handled homepage and app curation.
My contribution
As VP of Product Management, News Platforms, I mapped the full story workflow from draft to publish and chose one measure, time to publication. I set quarterly goals with PMs and five development teams, and directed 36 people across product, design, and engineering. I made the build, buy, and reuse decisions. I managed a $5.5M operating budget and secured $1.25M in Google News Initiative funding.
The change
We consolidated the tools into a common CMS across all eight newsrooms. One feed now powers both the website and the mobile app. We added AI bullet summaries, image alt text, and SEO headlines, and tested each one before release.
The result
  • 70% fewer workflow steps and tool transitions, against a 40% target.
  • 50 to 64% less time spent on curation.
  • AI features cleared for release after editors reviewed 100 published WSJ stories sampled across every section.
  • WSJ, MarketWatch, and Barron's adopted the off-the-shelf analytics tool and funded the cost.

Why 'Bite Size Elephant'?

You know that feeling when everything needs to be fixed RIGHT NOW? That's what trying to eat an elephant feels like. But there's only one way to do it: one bite at a time. Your biggest challenges aren't impossible. They're just a bunch of small problems dressed up as one giant mess.

  1. Start Small

    Every big transformation begins with one small, executable step

  2. Build Momentum

    Success creates confidence, which creates more success

  3. Stay Focused

    The goal isn't to do everything. It's to do the right things well

Life outside work

When I'm not fixing product problems, you'll find me hiking with my family or trying to teach my kids that the best solutions usually come from the simplest ideas, not the fanciest tools.

Living in Virginia with my family reminds me every day that real people don't care about your elegant framework. They care about whether something works when they need it to. That perspective shapes everything I do.

Bill with family

Let's look at the problem together.

Tell me what your team is working on and what's in the way. We'll work out what should change first.

Discuss your priorities