About Benjamin

From his earliest days in local news across nearly twenty-years transforming MTV News, half-decade growing Facebook’s News Partnerships Team, two award-winning PBS documentaries and ten studio albums, Benjamin Wagner’s focus has been the essential nature of our shared human experience — how stories help us navigate adversity, foster connection, and cultivate resilience to find meaning, thrive, and flourish.

Born in Iowa, Wagner moved six times before his sixth birthday. He graduated Syracuse University with dual degrees in Communications and Creative Writing (with author Tobias Wolff), then cut his teeth reporting for local radio (WCZN, KOTO) and newspapers (Suburban & Wayne Times, The Saratogian).

After moving to New York, he penned dozens of features for Rolling Stone before landing at MTV News. Wagner launched and led the iconic brand's website, championed major digital initiatives like the Video Music Awards and Choose or Lose, and drove its transformation from linear to mobile and social. He left nearly two decades later as Senior Vice President to join Facebook’s News Partnerships Team.

At Facebook, he oversaw editorial strategy for products like Paper, Live, Events, and Trending, and designed and developed the organization's first media partner center, Facebook Media Central. As Global Programs Lead, he helped launch and scale the Facebook Journalism Project, including international journalism conference engagements, and design and development of global News Days and Executive Summits.

He is the writer, producer, and director of two award-winning PBS Documentaries (Mister Rogers & Me, and Friends & Neighbors), and a performing singer/songwriter.

Wagner was a 2014 Columbia University Punch Sulzberger Fellow and is the current Director of Engagement for the Media Transformation Challenge Fellowship at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

After twenty-five years in New York City, Wagner now lives in Wilmington, Delaware, with his wife and two teenage daughters.