Today is an exciting day for me. I’m joining a new family, as executive editor and chief content officer at Mashable. To some it might seem a bit of a departure. You might imagine a headline like: "Longtime New York Times and Reuters veteran forsakes legacy media for digital upstart." Although this is the beginning of a new journey, it also feels like the natural progression for an editor who loves the news and loves even more the opportunity to experiment with new and innovative ways of spreading it to an audience — and growing that audience in the process. During the past eight years, I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the smartest and most innovative digital journalists on the planet. I learned much from them and in return sought to inspire them to greater levels of creativity and occasional risk-taking in using the power of technology to tell stories and deliver information. Initially at the Times and later at Reuters, I became an insistent, and occasionally nagging, advocate for using interactive tools, social media, video and graphics to augment traditional storytelling techniques. I evangelized the importance of real-time reporting and presentation, and the value that social media and live video could provide. I also recognized the huge power readers and viewers had in helping tell those stories, through words, photos or videos, and how valuable that input could be to the collective journalism. And above all, I learned how important it was for journalists to be active participants in the conversation. Not just to pitch stories and broadcast updates on Twitter or Facebook, but to listen to and talk to the audience. I do it on my own feed, @nycjim, and the journalists I like to follow do it on theirs. In other words, as disruptive as certain technologies have been to the news business, they have created much greater benefits for those of us who make a living as communicators – and for our audience. Which brings me to Mashable. For eight years, Pete Cashmore and his teammates have built a successful and growing journalistic business that sits at the busy intersection of technology, social media, entertainment, lifestyle, business, innovation and culture. They understand the subjects not only as a matter of journalism, but also how they resonate with the audience, a global audience. And they know to present it with style, excitement and fun. Just as critical, they understand how important that audience is in sharing and distributing the stories they create. They understand the Mashable community is not just a bunch of passive consumers, but are also active and thoughtful participants in the conversation, creators and contributors of unique content, and an essential part of the distribution chain. The members of Mashable's community are smart and voracious; they like to share, and it’s Mashable’s mission to create smart material for them to do so. During the past several weeks, I’ve gotten to know Pete’s leadership team at Mashable: Adam Ostrow, Mike Kriak, Stacy Martinet, Robyn Peterson and Seth Rogin. It will be a joy and privilege to work next to them and with Editor in Chief Lance Ulanoff and his team of journalists. But it is clear from our discussions that much work remains for Mashable to achieve its full potential. There are new subjects worth exploring, and new ways to go deeper and broader on the subjects that remain core to the brand. There are new opportunities in video and unconventional storytelling, as well as new ways to take advantage of the power and brains of our audience. And in the process, we’ll be looking to attract a bigger audience and new members to the Mashable community. It’s a journey I can’t wait to begin.
Image: Casey Kelbaugh