<\/p>\n
\n\tEntertainment veteran Amanda Farrand<\/a> has a new gig \u2014 where she\u2019s in charge of sparking joy on the internet, and, ideally, making some money from it.<\/p>\n \n\tUpworthy<\/a>, a digital aggregator and producer of viral uplifting stories, has hired Farrand as its new CEO. She officially joined the L.A.-based company on May 26 after holding senior roles at Imagine Entertainment and Reese Witherspoon\u2019s Hello Sunshine.<\/p>\n \n\tUpworthy\u2019s mission statement is to share \u201cthe best of humanity every day through stories that remind us of what we all have in common.\u201d The site launched in 2012 and was acquired in 2017 by Good Worldwide<\/a>, which is dedicated to empowering \u201cpeople and organizations to be a force for good \u2014 together.\u201d In addition to Upworthy, it owns media platform Good<\/a> and snack brand All In. Prior to Farrand\u2019s appointment, Max Schorr, CEO of Good Worldwide, had overseen the Upworthy business and now will focus more fully on Good Worldwide\u2019s next phase of growth.<\/p>\n \n\tAs CEO, Farrand is leading Upworthy as it positions itself to be increasingly focused on \u201cdirect audience relationships, creator ecosystems and content innovation,\u201d the company said. In addition, former Participant Media COO Gabe Brakin will join Upworthy as a strategic adviser.<\/p>\n \n\tFarrand said in a statement: \u201cThe world has never felt more divided and chaotic, so stories that connect us and remind us of our shared humanity are more important than ever. This is exactly the moment that Upworthy was built to meet. Audiences are craving connection and hope, brands are searching for safe platforms that can authentically bring people together, and storytellers are looking for direct audiences to engage with.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tShe added, \u201cWe\u2019re building Humanity\u2019s Media Company \u2014 a flywheel of content, creators, community and contribution designed with Upworthy\u2019s engaged audience at the center.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFarrand most recently served as EVP of business and brand development at Imagine Entertainment, the studio led by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. At Imagine, she focused on building strategic partnerships and audience engagement opportunities around the company\u2019s IP and premium content slate.<\/p>\n \n\tPrior to Imagine, Farrand spent four years at Hello Sunshine as SVP of partnerships and the Fair Play franchise. In that role, she developed partnerships with brands including P&G, CVS, PepsiCo, UnitedHealth Group, Nike and General Mills. Farrand led the expansion of Fair Play, based on Eve Rodsky\u2019s bestselling book of the same name, into a multiplatform franchise that included a documentary, podcast, ambassador program, social and email community, and a \u201ctrain-the-trainer\u201d certification program comprised more than 200 coaches, trainers and therapists.<\/p>\n \n\tEarlier in her career, Farrand held leadership roles at Participant Media, Sony, Paramount Pictures and Davie Brown Entertainment.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe are thrilled to welcome Amanda to lead Upworthy at the intersection of storytelling and humanity,\u201d said Ben Goldhirsh, co-founder and board member of Good Worldwide, in a statement. \u201cUnder Max\u2019s leadership over the past seven-plus years, Upworthy has delivered strong profitability and become one of the most recognized brands proving that media can elevate humanity. Amanda is exactly the right leader to build on that foundation, and her experience across entertainment, partnerships and impact storytelling makes her uniquely suited to lead Upworthy forward.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tUpworthy\u2019s senior management team includes Lucia Knell, VP of brand and marketing; Mindy Nguyen, VP of impact and partnerships; Eric Pfeiffer, editor in chief; Gabe Reilich, head of content and innovation; and Naomi Yasuda, head of operations.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to the company, Upworthy reaches about 17 million people per month across social and email through original editorial reporting, syndication partnerships and social distribution. Upworthy\u2019s content is distributed across owned channels as well as publishing partners including Yahoo and Apple News. The company says its research has found that 99% of audiences \u201cfeel better about the world after engaging with Upworthy content\u201d and that 86% report \u201cfeeling inspired to do good, give back or contribute to community with kindness after reading an Upworthy story.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Entertainment veteran Amanda Farrand has a new gig \u2014 where she\u2019s in charge of sparking joy on the internet, and, ideally, making some money from it. Upworthy, a digital aggregator and producer of viral uplifting stories, has hired Farrand as its new CEO. She officially joined the L.A.-based company on May 26 after holding senior […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2453467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[482147,482148],"class_list":["post-2453466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-amanda-farrand","tag-upworthy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Upworthy-Hires-CEO-Amanda-Farrand-Former-Imagine-and-Hello-Sunshine.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2453468,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453466\/revisions\/2453468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2453467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}