Marshall D. Simmonds was named chief search strategist for The New York Times Company in March, 2005. Mr. Simmonds is responsible for maximizing traffic and search engine exposure by implementing strategic marketing techniques for NYTimes.com, Boston.com, IHT.com and About.com’s 500 topic sites. In addition to his work with The Times, he is also spearheading DEFINE SEARCH STRATEGIES, an enterprise search consulting service, funded by The New York Times Company.

Mr. Simmonds is a world-wide speaker and a regular presenter at Incisive Media’s Search Engine Strategies and Webmaster World conferences. He specializes in educating large companies on the process of bringing search marketing “in-house” and into the daily workflow. His experience includes education and training programs, an expertise in content management services (home-grown and popular packages), involvement in extensive site redesigns, optimizing data-based content, and assessing and quantifying results through log-file/metrics services (home-grown and popular packages).

Before joining The New York Times Company, Mr. Simmonds was the director of search for About.com and parent company, Primedia Inc. from 1999 until 2005. He drove marketing strategies for Primedia’s online properties, such as MotorTrend, American Baby, Seventeen, New York Magazine, Channel One and About.com, where he increased traffic 1095 percent in five years, working with more than 800 editors and guides at the 250 magazines and 450 topic sites. From 1997 to 1999, he created and managed a search engine optimization department as well as the I-Search Digest, a twice-weekly e-mail discussion list for industry professionals.

As a specialist in the search industry since 1997, Mr. Simmonds has worked with a multitude of clients including; Hewlett-Packard, National Geographic, CBS, The Canadian Broadcast Company, TV Guide, Readers Digest, Club Mom, The Pilot Group, Contours Express, Medialive, Gawker Media, Intel, The Washington Post, Citigroup, Knight-Ridder Digital, Contra Costa Times, Register.com, Home Shopping Network, CitySearch, Yellow Pages, TicketMaster, Match.com, Entertainment.com, Hotwire.com, LendingTree, Hotels.com, Expedia, Evite, Ciao!com (.de), Lawyers.com, Merrill Lynch Online, and Hughes Network Systems.