Wednesday, August 16th, 2006
Under new ownership…
This is probably the worst kept secret, which is why I’m a journalist and not a member of the intelligence services, but I can finally announce that I’m under new ownership. After almost eight years with the BBC, I’m joining the Guardian as their Head of Blogging and Interaction.
During my eight years, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some great people on some great projects. The correspondents, videographers, radio producers and business managers at the Washington bureau, which I called home for six years, are the best in the business. I can’t thank them enough for their support. And Andrew Roy and Martin Turner, the two bureau chiefs I worked for, were instrumental in the success of the BBC News website’s Washington operations. John Angeli, Nic Newman, Cathy Grieve and Steve Herrmann at the News website gave me the support and the freedom to innovate.
Nic’s idea for our first US Election road trip put our audience in the driver’s seat. The US Election Challenge in 2000 pushed the edges of technology and the limits of endurance as Tom Carver and I raced across the US. More than 6,500 miles in six days.
Before Strange Attractor, I used to joke that “I’m not a blogger, but I play one on TV”. It was an accident of professional prodding really, but I was excited when Steve suggested that I blog during the political conventions in 2004. But it was such a success that Richard Greene and I reprised the 2000 road trip and I blogged across America. As I will be the first to admit, technically, it wasn’t much of a blog. No RSS. No trackbacks. The comments were put on the bottom of one of our standard web pages. But I tried to behave like a blogger.
I’ve been an online journalist for 10 years now. The reason why I am an online journalist is because every morning I get to wake up, go to work and create a new medium. And there is a lot more work to do. Here’s just a taster of what my new job is about:
[To act as] a role model for the new, participative form of journalism emerging from the best blogs. The role won’t just be about encouraging more journalists and commentators to blog. It should also be about experimenting with different forms of community interaction, spotting opportunities to launch new blogs and develop existing ones, and helping us form a strategy.
Watch this space. Now it gets interesting.
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August 16th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
Congrats, Kevin!
August 16th, 2006 at 10:54 pm
Hey congrats.
This is the start of a new chapter (or is that RSS feed?), with many exciting opportunities ahead of you.
Best of luck old pal,
Ben
August 16th, 2006 at 11:25 pm
Congratulations, I’m sure you will really enjoy the new challege.
August 17th, 2006 at 6:38 am
Congratulations! I’m so glad you found your way to somewhere even better and under your own steam. Plus of course you can stay in the UK which means I’ll still be expecting to see you at geekdinners
Take care and enjoy the new challenges…
August 17th, 2006 at 6:45 am
Steve, Tom and Ben,
Thanks everyone. Yes. It is going to be a challenge. Yeah, just a few more blogs in the old RSS feed. Ben Hammersley said something like 25 blogs and counting, and I’m sure he’s not talking about all of the individual blogs at Comment is Free. Phew.
But, what really is exciting is the experimental, innovation focus of this role. I hope to do a fair amount of ‘leading by doing’. Not telling people: “Head that way. That’s where the future lies”. But just heading off towards the future and inviting people to come along. But I also realise that a lot of bloggers out there are ahead of me, so I’ll do a fair amount of taking the lead from the grassroots innovators. It’s going to be fun.
k
August 17th, 2006 at 7:23 am
Congratulations Kevin!
August 17th, 2006 at 8:53 am
Hey, Congratulation! Wish you all the best for your new job!!!
August 17th, 2006 at 8:59 am
Let me be the, ahem, seventh to congratulate you Kevin! I’m really proud of you.
August 17th, 2006 at 9:51 am
Congrats, Kevin. It is indeed fantastic news.
August 17th, 2006 at 10:34 am
Dude! Well done! You so owe me dinner.
August 17th, 2006 at 11:03 am
Yes Tom, Suw and I so owe you dinner. Thanks for the tip.
August 17th, 2006 at 11:18 am
Wow, Kevin, this is exciting news. You’re totally the right guy for the job and you’ve got a helluva cool title to boot!
All the very best of luck; I’m delighted for ya
August 17th, 2006 at 12:36 pm
You seem a nice guy, nice job title to go with it
August 17th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
Congratulations on the new job, Kevin. Though commiserations on Suw only managing to be the seventh person to post up her congratulations. I hope you’ll be taking her to task for her tardiness.
August 17th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Congratulations - sorry the US won’t be getting you back anytime soon, but we’re watching from “across the pond”!
August 17th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
To be fair, Vince, I did congratulate Kevin in person as soon as he walked in the door. And then a multiplicity of times thereafter, so I wasn’t completely tardy in my appreciation of his success, I was just a bit slow commenting on the blog.
August 18th, 2006 at 8:02 am
Congratulations Kevin - all the best!
August 18th, 2006 at 9:37 am
From a stint in Peoria to this? Man, you’re making me look bad!
August 18th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
This is great news, Kevin. I look forward to a rich mixture of left wing interaction……..and left wing interaction…….and more left wing interaction.
August 18th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Well done, Kevin!
August 18th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Hi Kevin,
Congratulation on your new task. You have marked BBC blog. It was your interaction with the contributors to the BBC blog that encouraged me to be one of the frequent contributors. I am not a journalist like you equipped with means to get information. All I can do is give my comments which can be good or bad.
In case, you leave BBC blog I will be “following” you in the Guardian blog. But as I have told you in one of my e-mails, I will remain committed to BBC blog.
Once again congratulation on the new job.
August 18th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Congratulations Kevin. The BBC’s loss and the Guardian’s gain is considerable. I’m very sorry to see you go as a colleague, but delighted for you that you’ve landed such an interesting role (and can now stay in UK - and buy me a drink with your new salary!)
August 18th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
Congratulations Kevin, I hope you enjoy your new position at the Guardian.
August 18th, 2006 at 11:50 pm
Kevin, that’s so rad! Great berth to do some great work. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
August 24th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Congratulations, Kevin!
August 25th, 2006 at 9:29 am
Congratulations Dude. Keep rockin’ the ’sphere…
October 2nd, 2006 at 9:03 pm
Congrats, Kevin. Loss for the BBC for the time being, but a win for journalism’s future in general. See you around, man.