Mark Potts is a leader in the development of innovative content and business strategies and products in online and print media. An entrepreneur and consultant, he co-founded Backfence Inc., a pioneer in the field of user-generated, hyperlocal citizens media. He created one of the first electronic newspaper prototypes in the early 1990s at The Washington Post, and then co-founded the newspaper company’s digital division, WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive.

Potts served on the founding team of the @Home Network, where he led the creation of the first consumer broadband programming service. He also was Chief Product Officer for Cahners Business Information (now Reed Business Information), the nation’s largest trade publisher, where he managed Cahners Digital and oversaw the development of 120 trade magazine Web sites, include Variety.com and PublishersWeekly.com.

As a consultant, Potts has developed strategies and products for The Washington Post Co., Cox Communications, New Century Network, Classified Ventures, Disney’s Infoseek/Go Network, Tribe Networks, HealthCentral and many others. He most recently oversaw the redesign of Philly.com, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News Web site. Formerly a reporter and editor at The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Examiner and the Associated Press, he is the co-author of two business books, The Leading Edge and Dirty Money. He blogs about the intersection of media and the online world at www.recoveringjournalist.com.