San Francisco, California
Email: telstar@lappin.com
Phone: (415) 378-7719

Todd Lappin works with clients to create branded media experiences that delight audiences and deliver strategic results. Combining a versatile editorial sensibility with a creative approach to product development and deep operational experience, Todd is a media product architect who works with multidisciplinary teams to define, build, and launch media properties online or in print. A consultant since 2006, he has played a leading role in high-profile editorial launches and product development initiatives, while also collaborating on project-related engagements with leading design consultancies.

From 2001 to 2006, Todd served as a senior editor at Business 2.0 magazine, a San Francisco-based publication of Time Inc. From 1995 to 1999, he was an editor at Wired magazine, where he oversaw the magazine's legal and political coverage and wrote feature stories about information technology's transformational impact upon the long-haul trucking industry, FedEx, and the Indianapolis 500 motor race.

In 2007 and 2008, Todd worked with 8020 Publishing to create Everywhere, the world's first user-generated print travel magazine. Todd defined an architecture and voice for the magazine that delivered a high-quality reader experience using stories and photos submitted by the magazine's online community. As launch editor-in-chief, Todd developed a curatorial process, staffing structure, and editorial production flow that significantly reduced content production costs relative to traditional print magazines. Industry analyst Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni nominated Everywhere as one of five candidates for The Most Notable Magazine Launch of 2007, alongside Conde Nast Portfolio and Outside's Go, noting that Everywhere "is not your father's travel magazine."

In 2006, Todd spearheaded the successful relaunch of BNET, a business media brand of CNET Networks. Intended to be a hands-on resource for managerial professionals, Todd translated CNET's target audience goals into a comprehensive editorial strategy. Fusing a rigorous service-oriented approach to content delivery with a lifestyle-oriented brand sensibility, Todd provided CNET's technical and design staff with the insights they needed to do their jobs effectively. He hired and managed BNET's editorial team, staying with the project for six months after launch to oversee day-to-day editorial operation. At relaunch, site traffic to BNET tripled almost immediately, and the site continues to win industry awards for excellence.

From 1999 to 2000, Todd was content director at Guru.com, a dotcom-era startup that created a marketplace for independent professionals and the clients who wanted to hire them. Todd led the development and implementation of a comprehensive content strategy that offered service-oriented content tailored specifically to the unique needs of independent professionals. Guru.com's content effort played an instrumental part in the company's ability to attract tens of thousands of independent professionals to its online marketplace.

More recently, as a strategist, researcher, and writer, Todd has also collaborated with several leading design consultancies, including IDEO, GravityTank, and MOTO Development Group.

Todd's work as a freelance writer has appeared in The New York Times, Wired, Men's Journal, Business 2.0, The New York Observer, San Francisco magazine, 7x7, Make, and ReadyMade. His photography has appeared in San Francisco magazine, 7x7, Make, Pictory, and several full-color calendars.

In 1996, he compiled and edited The Great Thoughts of China, an anthology of Chinese philosophy published by John Wiley & Sons.

Todd attended the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and he received his undergraduate degree from Brown University, with a concentration in East Asian Intellectual History. He is conversational in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and French.

He has appeared as a broadcast commentator on CNN News, CNN's Talk back Live, Court TV, NPR's Morning Edition and Talk of the Nation, PRI's Marketplace, KQED's Forum, CBC's The World, the Voice of America, and various local news outlets.