David Rothstein

CEO & Founder

CEO David Rothstein co-founded Newsmatics, a news tech company, in 1995 with his wife Gina Fratto, vice president of customer experience.

As a hands-on CEO, David loves playing in a sandbox of innovation and turning ideas into action quickly. For close to 30 years, he has been an innovator of proprietary internet news services and intelligent search technologies used by millions.

He develops short-term and long-term business strategies, leads, supports, motivates, and engages 65 full and part-time remote employees and managers globally, oversees all operations and business activities, makes investment decisions, looks for profit and brand awareness growth opportunities, enforces legal guidelines and in-house policies, reviews financial and non-financial reports, builds relationships with key partners and stakeholders, and provides solutions.

As a young couple in their 20s, David and his wife moved to Prague, Czech Republic in the early 1990s. Inspired by the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of the city’s well-educated citizens, they began translating Czech business news into summaries that could be posted on list servers on CompuServe and printed as a subscription newsletter. They then founded one of the first online news websites, Central Europe Online, in the mid-90s.

David believes news tech is important because most news is delivered via technology and that news is an integral part of democracy. It’s evolved from black and white printing to radio, television, and now the internet. He aims to help society become wiser consumers of news by providing them with a platform to distinguish real news from fake news and honest reporting from propaganda.

Born in Juneau, Alaska, David spent some of his childhood in Anchorage where his father was the editor of the Anchorage Daily News from the late 1950s – early 1960s, giving him an understanding of the news business at a young age.

After graduating from Northeastern University in Boston with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 1987, David worked as a customer service representative for Capitol Video Communications, a post-production facility for television and radio broadcasting, in Washington, D.C. Their clients included CNN, Discovery Channel, and political media producers.

Since moving back stateside after residing in Prague for 15 years, David and his family have been splitting their time between West Palm Beach, Florida and Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), National Press Club, Washington., DC (NPC), and Online News Association (ONA).

Connect with David on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/davidrothsteinpr/