SEATTLE — The Seattle Times is pleased to announce Kati Erwert, senior vice president of product, marketing and public service, will lead The Seattle Times’ fundraising and development initiatives, effective April 1. In this next evolution of The Seattle Times’ public-service journalism development efforts, Erwert will head fundraising and infrastructure supporting The Times’ successful Labs, as well as future ventures. Joaquin Alvarado will shift back to a consultancy role supporting The Seattle Times Save the Free Press initiative while acting as an advisor for development.

Community funding for Seattle Times public-service journalism started as an experiment in 2011 with the Greater Good campaign to stop the defunding of higher education in Washington state. This successful experiment expanded to include the launch of four community-funded Labs: Education Lab (2013), Traffic Lab (2015), Project Homeless (2017) and The Seattle Times Investigative Journalism Fund (2020).

Kati Erwert joined The Seattle Times’ marketing department in 2007 and has served as senior vice president of product, marketing and public service since June 2019. Her multi-faceted position combines traditional marketing responsibilities with The Seattle Times’ unique public service voice. Erwert is part of a highly successful team focused on audience revenue that has grown digital subscriptions at one of the fastest rates in the country.

"I have the privilege of working directly with Kati Erwert on the senior management team that has been carefully built to guide us into the next generation. She has a deep and nuanced understanding of how public-service journalism drives our community forward. Kati is the right leader at the right time to shepherd our fundraising and development efforts to secure and expand the future of public-service journalism in our region." said Seattle Times Publisher Frank Blethen.

The Seattle Times serves the Northwest with independent, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism, as the region’s most trusted news media company, dedicated to public service. The Seattle Times is the most-visited digital information source in Washington state and the second-largest newspaper on the West Coast. Founded in 1896 by Alden J. Blethen, The Seattle Times’ stewardship is now led by the Blethen family’s fourth and fifth generations, whose stewardship also includes the Yakima Herald-Republic and The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin.