Liz Perle, the editor-in-chief and a co-founder of Common Sense Media, died Aug. 20 from breast cancer. She was 59.
Perle was pivotal in honing the message for Common Sense, the San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that works to improve media and technology choices for children and families, and she defined its guiding philosophy: “We believe in sanity, not censorship.”
“Liz was really the intellectual architect of our voice and editorial strategy,” said Jim Steyer, the organization’s CEO and co-founder. When Graphite, the ed-tech rating and review service for teachers,was launched by Common Sense in 2013, Perle again led the editorial strategy for the offering and mentored the writers and editors who contributed to it.
Before co-launching Common Sense, Perle was an executive at publishing houses, including William Morrow/Avon Books, Addison-Wesley, and Prentice Hall Press (Simon & Schuster).
“She had been an extremely successful publisher, but the capstone of her career was that she helped build” Common Sense, said Steyer. “She was part of the heart and soul of this organization,” he added, and “hopefully, she’s changed the lives of millions.”