Douglas Karr

Before leaving the Newspaper Industry behind in 2001, I was a Database Marketing Manager and Consultant in the Industry for over a decade, where I led, designed, implemented, integrated, and developed geographic information systems, marketing data warehouses, retention analysis applications, and marketing strategies for Newspapers in the United States and Canada. My strategies led to increased business to business advertising, direct marketing, database marketing, and circulation customer retention improvements. I was nominated for the NAA’s 20 under 40 in the industry.

Letters and articles I have written have been published in the Newspaper Association of America’s Presstime Magazine, The NAA’s Circulation Federation Magazine, Business 2.0, The Indianapolis Business Journal, The Indianapolis Star, The Virginian-Pilot, Connections - an Industry Publication for the Email Marketing Industry and Web Design Magazine. You can also watch a television interview of me on the about page at I Choose Indy! or listen to a podcast with Paul Dunay of the Buzz Marketing podcast.

I have worked with and developed in virtually every platform and language. Everything from GIS applications utilizing ESRI, MapInfo, Google… to simple widgets. I would not classify myself as a programmer, I’m much more comfortable as a technologist who can span the gap between the business folks and the developers. For over a decade, I’ve put that talent to use with marketing applications and integrations.

For the last year, I’ve been actively speaking at local conferences and consulting with a number of clients on blogging and social networking. I assist several bloggers directly, including Black in Business, Sports Marketing 2.0, and I launched I Choose Indy! - named one of the top 10 blogs in Indianapolis and covered by all major newspaper and television outlets. My blog was named in the Top 10 Business Blogs in the MidWest and I am currently writing a book on corporate blogging.

I have recently joined Compendium Blogware as their VP of Blogging Evangelism. My job is to work with clients on their social media strategies and leverage the Compendium Blogware SaaS platform to maximize their marketing efforts.

Prior to Compendium, I was the Director of Technology at Patronpath. Under my direction, we won the Techpoint Mira Awards and had triple digit growth while maintaining our costs aggressively flat. Patronpath is a Marketing and E-commerce company serving the food service industry, specializing in Online Ordering and POS integration.

Prior to Patronpath, I was a Product Manager and Integration Consultant for ExactTarget, a permission-based Email Service Provider that was named one of the fastest growing private companies in the country by Inc magazine.

I am also a proud member of the Indianapolis Colts Marketing Advisory Board, led by Pat Coyle, Database Marketing Director of the Indianapolis Colts. Pat and I also launched I Choose Indy! and the Indianapolis Book Mashup - a book club to discuss the latest business, marketing and technology publications.

You can find me educating folks about Blogs, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media at Webcamp, a regional technology camp that is run by Bitwise Solutions here in Indianapolis.