Mark McClusky

Mark McClusky is the Editorial Director of the Freakonomics Radio Network. In this role, he’s responsible for the editorial quality. He shows the network's development, including the top 100 podcasts Freakonomics Radio, No Stupid Questions, People I (Mostly) Admire, and a slate of upcoming launches. 

Before joining Freakonomics in November 2020, he was the Digital Editor of the Sports Illustrated Group. In this role, he directed all digital editorial strategy for the sites in the group—SI.com, Golf.com, Fansided.com, and SIKids.com. Under his leadership, the sites set new audience and traffic records. Traffic across the group grew by 50%, social media engagement more than doubled, and video views quadrupled across all SI platforms.

Before returning to Sports Illustrated and Time Inc. in September 2016, McClusky was Head of Product & Business Development at WIRED, where he directed the brand's technology, product, and audience development teams and led business development for the editorial operation. In that capacity, he spearheaded a groundbreaking initiative to offer ad-blocking users an ad-free subscription to WIRED.com; led a first-of-its-kind editorial partnership between WIRED and SI about the future of football; and expanded the brand’s expansion across emerging platforms, such as Facebook Instant Articles and Google AMP. 

He served as the Head of Operations at WIRED and Editor at WIRED.com for two years. Under his direction, WIRED.com recorded traffic and readership numbers and garnered industry recognition for editorial excellence, including eight Webby Awards and multiple nominations for National Magazine Awards. Prior to that role, McClusky was Special Projects Editor at WIRED, where he led the magazine’s editorial efforts on new platforms, including its iPad and other tablet editions, working to help develop some of the first tablet magazine products in the industry.

From 2005 to 2010, McClusky was the WIRED's Senior Editor for Products, directing all gear and gadget coverage. He also served as editor of the newsstand-only WIRED TEST magazines and was the founding editor of Playbook, WIRED’s sports technology blog. He has been Managing Editor of WIRED.com, an editor at Mobile PC magazine, Editor in Chief of EA.com, and a reporter and editor at Sports Illustrated and SI for Kids magazines.