Media, Messages, Content and Code
For over 20 years, I’ve worked at the intersection of content, creativity, and technology — leading newsrooms and content studios, building content operations, and shaping stories that connect with international audiences.
I’ve managed newsrooms at major media companies, directed branded content inside corporations, and helped international teams scale through smarter workflows and advanced technology.
I build systems, guide creators, and roll up my sleeves when needed. Strategy and operations are my focus, but I stay hands-on — writing, scripting, and shaping stories alongside the creators I lead and support.
Work
I spent half of my career inside media companies and publishers—the other half within brands and corporations.
At heart, I’ll always be a media professional. That legacy shapes every communication and content initiative I lead.
My digital media journey began in 2001 with the launch of Tgcom, Italy’s first omnichannel news outlet, at Mediaset (now MediaForEurope).
At DeAgostini, I developed video-led revenue streams, before joining Red Bull Media House to lead its digital newsroom during its transformation from branded content unit to global media powerhouse. Since then, I’ve shaped brand and content strategies for venture capital firms, B2B publishers and major international clients.
Today
VP Content at EDM Publication, Germany-based international business information publisher.
Currently working on two fronts: redesigning content operations to enable global scale with lean, tech-supported workflows, from automated newsgathering to AI-assisted editing and research, while leading a distributed newsroom as Editor-in-Chief, shaping editorial strategy around user needs for decision-makers, leaders, and investors.
Background: media companies
- RED BULL MEDIA HOUSE Global Head .com
Led Red Bull Media House’s HQ newsroom, shaping redbull.com/.tv into a global sport media brand. Took audience from 100K to 10 Mio UU monthly. - DE AGOSTINI PUBLISHING EU Head of Digital
Led digital shift from print to video, building new revenue streams and a 15-person creative team. - MEDIASET (NOW: MFE) Product Manager
Part of Mediaset’s early digital transformation—helping build the editorial systems and multimedia formats that shaped its online news era
Background: Brands & Corporates
- SONOVA GROUP Head of Content & Design
Directed a 7-person studio, integrating AI to double campaign output across eight European markets. - FOUNDAMENTAL.VC Brand & Content Director
Created a new VC brand — from identity to thought leadership in the ConstructTech space. - INDUSTRY DIVE Content Strategy Director
Developed brand storytelling frameworks and guided clients through implementation.
By the Numbers
- TEAM LEADERSHIP
Led international content teams of up to 21 FTEs and 100+ freelancers across editorial, creative, and production functions.
- BUDGET MANAGEMENT
Managed annual budgets of up to €7M for content commissioning, licensing, and content tech infrastructure.
- GLOBAL REACH
Oversaw operations across 50 countries and 4 languages, including full responsibility for localization teams and workflows.
Areas of Expertise
- CONTENT
OPERATIONS
I build and lead content studios and workflows.
I create the conditions for teams to deliver great content, at scale and on time.
I’m not the producer on-site, but the coach on the field. When needed, however, I can still wear the player’s suit and step onto the field to write, coordinate, and create.
- CONTENT STRATEGY &
GOVERNANCE
I define how content supports business and brand goals — from messaging frameworks to channel architecture.
I create the vision and the guardrails. This includes QA, rights clearance, and corporate policies.
- PRODUCT &
EXPERIENCE
I work at the intersection of content and product, ensuring content supports UX, and UX enables content to reach and serve the right audiences.
I speak the language of product and dev—I’m their best possible partner and stakeholder.
- MARKETING
CONTENT
I bring an editorial lens to performance goals — helping teams grow audiences and convert customers without losing their voice or standards.
Not a content marketer in the strict sense. I shape the messaging and the formats, but not run campaigns.
Current Focus
Planning and editorial calendar
Without a shared plan, a newsroom descends into chaos.
I designed and implemented an Airtable-based editorial calendar that connects content strategy, audience priorities, task assignment, and the marketing calendar—giving distributed teams a single source of truth, from idea to publish.
Automated News Gathering
Timely intelligence at scale requires more than human effort alone.
I’m building an AI-supported news gathering layer—currently experimenting with Claude Projects, Gemini Gems, and Perplexity to find the right fit for a lean, distributed newsroom. Work in progress, direction clear.
Have a tool to suggest or a solution that fits? Send me an email.
Editorial Network & Newsroom Leadership
For over two decades, I’ve built and led international networks of authors and contributors across audiovisual and editorial media—from Red Bull’s 100+ global contributors to today’s distributed team at SGI Europe.
My strength lies in transforming dispersed freelancers and editors into a coherent, accountable newsroom with shared standards and a unified voice.
Content UX & Strategy
Great content strategy today follows the user needs model — the same framework adopted by the world’s best publishers.
I work at the intersection of content and product (what some call content design): ensuring content architecture serves real audience needs, and that UX enables content to reach the right reader at the right moment.
Connect and explore opportunities
CV available on demand: berlin@valentinagiannella.eu
Education, Training, Languages
Education
- M.Sc. Business Administration
Bocconi University, Milan 110/110
In 2025, Bocconi ranked 10th globally for Business & Management Studies (QS), 7th in the world for Marketing (QS), and 4th globally for its MBA program (Financial Times). - Executive Leadership Program
IE Business School and IBC Kolding, DK
IBC Kolding is a campus of the International Business College (IBC) in Denmark: it provides vocational training, specialized programs like an international class in project management, and international business courses.
Training
- Agile Product Owner
Scrum Alliance, Vienna, 2014
Scrum Alliance is is the largest certifying body for Scrum professionals, founded in 2001 to promote Scrum and Agile practices. - Design Thinking
Hasso Plattner Institute, 2016
The Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) is a top-ranked, privately funded centre of excellence for digital engineering located in Potsdam, Germany. Founded in 1998, it jointly operates the Digital Engineering Faculty with the University of Potsdam.
Languages
- English C2
- German C1/2
- Italian MT
- French ELEM
- Ivrit ELEM
Media
Stories big and small that start in Berlin and look eastward, where the heart of the continent beats and its future is shaped.
✍️ Digital Essays 📷 Photo Stories 🎙️ Podcast
From Berlin, Europe looks clearer—its history, its contradictions, its possible future.
Beyond Berlin dives into the stories that define this continent: memory, culture, politics, and the arts. It’s about how the past still breathes in the present, and how the line between East and West can finally blur.
It’s an evolving project—a mix of essays, photo stories, and podcasts that follow Europe’s pulse beyond its old borders.
This is also a personal statement. I am a social liberal European who refuses to accept decline as fate.
I believe Europe must rediscover pride—without forgetting its tragedies, but without being trapped by them.
“Make Europe Great Again” shouldn’t be taboo—it should be a challenge. Less guilt. Less moral posturing. Less dependency. Less empty cosmopolitanism. Less “global South-ism”. More identity. More confidence. More Europe.
Subscribe for free on beyondberlin @ Substack
One Europe
from Lisbon to Luhansk,
from Tromsø to Tbilisi
Valentina
Giannella
Content
Operations
Executive
Strategist
Newsroom
Leader
2025 Copyright
© Valentina Giannella
Made in Berlin & Vienna
🇪🇺 Part of one Europe,
going from Lisbon to Luhansk