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Meghan Murphy
Leading emerging tech programs at Online News Association
Professional Background
Meghan Murphy is a highly accomplished nonprofit program director with over a decade of extensive experience in program and member engagement strategy. She is currently at the forefront of an industry-leading program that is focused on the innovative applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in journalism. Meghan’s leadership role allows her to influence the intersection of technology and media, ensuring that organizations adapt to emerging trends while serving their audiences effectively.
Before taking on her current role, Meghan has enjoyed a varied career trajectory characterized by progressive responsibility and impactful contributions. She has served as the Director of Programs at the Online News Association (ONA), where she was instrumental in developing initiatives that foster community engagement among journalism professionals. Prior to this, she held multiple positions at ONA, including Senior Manager of Communities and Local Journalism Initiatives and Community Manager, where she honed her expertise in community building and stakeholder engagement.
In addition to her work at ONA, Meghan has also contributed to renowned organizations such as AARP and National Geographic. As the Community Strategist at AARP, she developed strategies that focused on broadening member engagement and enhancing community relationships. Her time with National Geographic saw her hold various roles from Social Media and Marketing Consultant to Membership & Project Coordinator, demonstrating her multifaceted approach to nonprofit communications and program development.
Alongside her extensive professional work, Meghan has been actively engaged in volunteering, demonstrating her commitment to the nonprofit sector. She has volunteered with the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) on their Young Professionals Advisory Committee and Program Advisory Committee, contributing her insights to enhance the organization’s outreach. Similarly, her involvement with LION Publishers on their inaugural Advisory Council and as an awards judge reflects her dedication to supporting innovative journalism practices.
Education and Achievements
Meghan holds a Bachelor's degree in Journalism and Spanish from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, an educational background that forms a solid foundation for her career in communications and media. In addition to her undergraduate studies, she further enriched her education by studying Communications at the University of Seville, gaining valuable international perspectives that inform her work in diverse communities.
Furthermore, Meghan is a 2020 New Leaders Council fellow, indicating her recognition as a rising leader in her field. By serving on the DC chapter's Board of Directors in 2020-2021, she contributed significantly to recruitment and marketing efforts, showcasing her skills in strategic communications. In 2022-2023, she served as finance and advancement co-chair on the Boston chapter's Board of Directors.
Her commitment to professional development is further evidenced by her participation in prestigious programs like the ASAE NextGen Association leadership program and the Rising Organizers fellowship, both of which underscore her drive to stay ahead in the ever-evolving landscape of nonprofit leadership.
Achievements
Meghan’s career is marked by numerous notable achievements that showcase her leadership capabilities and innovative approach to program management. Her work at the Online News Association reflects her ability to launch and sustain impactful programs that resonate across the journalism community. Meghan has played a pivotal role in developing resources and initiatives that enhance the skills and engagement of journalists navigating the challenges posed by rapid technological changes, especially the incorporation of AI into journalism.
Meghan is also recognized for her role in nurturing young professionals through her volunteer work with ASAE, where she helped shape career pathways for emerging leaders in the association sector. Her active participation in committee work and advisory roles has not only brought about tangible outcomes for the organizations she serves but has also enriched her own understanding of best practices in nonprofit management.
With a dedication to fostering an inclusive environment within the journalism community, Meghan continues to advocate for diversity and innovation. Her involvement in various boards and associations further underscores her commitment to the field while also serving to elevate conversations around the importance of AI in journalism today.
In summary, Meghan Murphy stands out as a passionate leader in the nonprofit sector with a track record of impactful contributions to program development, community engagement, and innovative advocacy. Her rich history with distinguished organizations, coupled with her educational achievements and community involvement, positions her as a
Highlights
People keep asking me: How are newsrooms using AI ethically and sustainably to support their mission?
The Online News Association enlisted the wonderful Nikita Roy to research and write a new series of case studies from newsrooms who have used AI in innovative ways to support their work. The first one, which we just published, features local newspaper Mediehuset iTromsø which built a custom AI tool to assist journalists in finding, analyzing and summarizing news stories by parsing public municipal archives. In addition to this in-depth look at how the project came together, ONA is hosting the team behind the project on Zoom Sept. 11 for a live "how we built it" session so we can nerd out together on the details. (Sign up: https://lnkd.in/ema_97VX)
If you need inspiration, we'll be sending case studies out every week for the next couple of months right to your inbox. Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/enhf2vrV
(P.S. — If you sign up this week, my colleague Karolle Rabarison will do another send of this first edition at the end of the week so you don't miss the first part of the series!)
Out of all the tools we've been training on for our AI in Journalism Initiative, the ones that have gotten the most 😰 / 😳 / 🤯 reactions from the group have been the visual and image generation tools. The advances in the quality and believability of the outputs over just several short months has been truly astounding. And as they say, "seeing is believing" — the implications for misinformation and disinformation are where things get really scary here, especially in a fast-moving world where we're often primed to share or react first, and think critically later.
Ethical journalism needs to be leading on what is happening here, and to do that we need people to understand these technologies and how they work. That's why I set up this mini-series on visual journalism over the next several weeks as part of our AI in Journalism Initiative to discuss ethics, legal issues, visual leadership in newsrooms, how these tools work and how newsrooms are currently experimenting with them. We have panels, discussion sessions, and practical learning sessions — and this is just the tip of the iceberg on this topic. I'd love to hear what you're all thinking about this, too!
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
- Smart Search: Allows you to search using natural language like "People I know at the NYT" or "Designers I've met in London"
- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Mesh's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.