Joe Ricketts

Notable work and positions

Straight Arrow News (SAN) - founder and CEO
DNAinfo / Gothamist network - former founder and owner
TD Ameritrade - founder and former CEO

Biography

John Joseph "Joe" Ricketts is an American businessman who founded the discount brokerage that became TD Ameritrade in 1975 and later built a series of media ventures. In 2009 he founded DNAinfo, a hyperlocal digital news service covering neighborhood news in New York and Chicago, and in 2017 he acquired the Gothamist network of city sites, including Gothamist, Chicagoist, DCist, LAist and SFist. In November 2017, one week after DNAinfo's New York newsroom voted to unionize, Ricketts shut down the entire DNAinfo and Gothamist network, putting about 115 journalists out of work; the sites were later revived under new ownership. In 2021, Ricketts founded Straight Arrow News (SAN), an Omaha-based national news outlet positioned as a source of unbiased reporting, where he serves as CEO and founder. Ricketts and his family have owned the Chicago Cubs since 2009.