Local media-focussed consulting and software provider BlueLena has recruited Samantha Bennet from Meta.

In the new role of vice president of operations, she is charged with developing solutions and programming for newsrooms as well as the team’s internal processes.

Her more than a decade of experience managing relationships with local newsrooms includes a role with Meta’s US News Partnerships Team, working on products including CrowdTangle and Bulletin, providing educational resources, webinars and best practices for local newsrooms of all sizes. Meta ended the Facebook News tab in the US last year, and is in the process of doing so in the UK and Europe.

Before Meta, Sam led social strategy for CBS owned and operated local TV stations. She created and managed social syndication systems as well as roll-outs and training of SaaS tools for newsrooms to implement.

A graduate of the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, she lives in Montclair, NJ with her husband and two children.

BlueLena works with independent local media to build audiences and tools to support journalism funding models. The company is founder-funded and backed by investment from Wordpress owner Automattic, the Local Media Association and Old Town Media, a New York-based firm that has supported The Colorado Sun, Block Club Chicago, Chalkbeat and Medium.