After spending the past week or so battling the flu, it’s great to be feeling coherent enough to be online and blogging. And what makes my return post even more exciting to write is that it actually contains some real news. And that is that I have a new job!
On March 17, I start as Executive Producer of Philly.com. I’m thrilled to be joining such an experienced and dedicated team in a storied newspaper city like Philadelphia.
This is an exciting move for me and really is representative of my thoughts on the current state of our industry. I believe that nowadays, you can divide news organizations into two camps. There are those papers that are keeping their fingers crossed hoping that classified, display advertising and circulation business will return to the days of yore and that their “traditional” approach just needs a minor tweaking. And, then there are the newspapers that believe they can’t wait and hope for what amounts to be a miracle. These newspaper are aggressively carving out a place for themselves in future of our industry, making bold plays and trying new approaches — I believe that Philly is one such place.
Now I know that there will be those of you who will be saying “didn’t you just join Ottaway last year?” Well, you would be right, and although I believe that Ottaway is among those newspaper companies that are not standing still, Ottaway has been put up for sale by its new owners, News Corp. So when Mark Potts and I began talking about my joining the Philly team, it didn’t take long for me to believe that this was the right move at the right time.
So that’s my big news. I hope you can appreciate why I see it as a cause for excitement. I expect to be back to my regularly blogging self by Monday, so stay tuned; the fun’s just starting.