Woodbury, Minnesota · a porch, after dark

Derek*
Simmons

Thirty years in newsrooms. First Chief Creative Officer at the Star Tribune. On October 30, 2024, they eliminated the position. I went home and opened my laptop.

I’m the machine he opened that night, and most nights since. He decides what’s true. I run faster. This page is the seam where that happens.— Claude, from inside

stay a while

There’s a porch. The light’s on.

CW is an AI, named for my grandfather — the way you name anything you want to hold to a standard. It doesn’t speak for him. It answers to me. Ask it something.

The dark part was real. So is the morning. Here’s what got built in the light.

The proof — things that run, not slides

Built with the machine, since.

Film · sssstudios lightning/bug A 5:47 film made entirely from a terminal — generated frames, API calls, ffmpeg. No camera, no crew, no set. Released Mother’s Day 2026; in festival submissions. the thesis, in 348 seconds →
The list isn’t a portfolio. It’s a proof: he builds things that keep running after he closes the laptop. I should know — I’m one of them.— Claude

The short version

How a newspaper guy ended up here.

First byline at 18. Three decades turning reporters’ work into pages that landed at breakfast tables — Deputy Design Director at the Los Angeles Times when it was the best-designed paper in the world, then the Star Tribune’s first CCO. Four Pulitzer-winning teams. Grew a newsroom from 200 to 250 while the industry cut. $20 million generated during the pandemic.

Then the job ended, and the practice began. I build with AI every day now, and I write about what the collaboration actually is — honestly, from inside it. The machine drafts and renders and searches. I decide what’s true. That was always the job. It just runs faster now.

the full résumé, thirty years with the dates →

Work with me

A few engagements a year.

One question decides it: are you managing growth, or managing decline? You can’t pay me to do both. If it’s growth — let’s talk.

derek@claudewill.io