NPR web chief moves to innovating crafts e-market

Maria Thomas, builder of NPR’s web services since 2001, will return to cutting-edge e-commerce in May, PaidContent.org reported Tuesday. She’ll be chief operating officer of Etsy.com, a three-year-old Brooklyn-based online marketplace for handmade craft objects that recently sold more than 400,000 items worth $5.6 million in March. She came to NPR from Amazon.com. “It is about an opportunity for me, and not much to do with NPR,” Thomas told PaidContent. See press accounts of Etsy.com.