Britannica.com Names Rodger Brown Managing Editor

Posted on June 6, 2000

Britannica.com, a free online encyclopedia and reference website, has announced the appointment of Rodger Brown as managing editor. Brown will work with Editorial Director Janice Castro to further enhance the editorial vision of Britannica.com. He will be responsible for refining the site's editorial direction and managing the day-to-day creation of content, including daily and special editorial features.

Brown most recently worked as editorial director of Playboy.com, where he was responsible for overseeing content development for several Playboy sites, including developing and incorporating live Web casts into the business' content offerings. Before joining Playboy.com in April 1997, Brown was associate director of online services for Eason Publications, a chain of arts and entertainment weeklies in Atlanta.

Brown is the author of two books, Ghost Dancing on the Cracker Circuit: The Culture of Festivals in the American South and Party Out of Bounds: The B-52's, R.E.M. and the Kids Who Rocked Athens, Georgia, as well as numerous book reviews, essays, feature stories and investigative news features that have appeared in The Atlanta Journal/Constitution, The New York Times Magazine and The Village Voice.

``We are proud to welcome Rodger to our editorial team,'' Castro said. ``His broad experience in print and online entertainment media, combined with his eclectic, multidisciplinary background, will bring a fresh perspective and even more original thinking to Britannica.com.''

Brown, 41, holds a Ph.D. in American and cultural studies from Emory University in Atlanta, a master of arts in journalism and mass communication and a bachelor of arts in linguistics, both from the University of Georgia.