Each time I take a new job, I think it’s going to be my last move.
I thought that when I came to The Gazette and gazetteonline as editor, and I thought that about the previous job and the one before that. And … well, a lot of jobs in the newspaper business.
My next job won’t be in the newspaper business. The news business, yes, but not the newspaper business.
I won’t predict this is my last move. I hope so, but I’m still a young man (well, middle-aged, but I think I have lots of career left). I’m finally accepting that the world changes too swiftly to project expectations very far: Obstacles arise, opportunities beckon.
I decided this week to accept a new opportunity. I am leaving Gazette Communications next month to become Director of Community Engagement for a new digital startup (new enough that we don’t have a name yet) that will be launching this year, covering local news in the Washington metro area.
Jim Brady, former executive editor of washingtonpost.com, is leading this operation for Allbritton Communications, owner of Politico and several television stations, including WJLA and News Channel 8 in Washington. Jim is a leader and pioneer of digital journalism and I am delighted and honored that he has invited me to join this effort.
My staff, colleagues and I will work to turn some of the ideas I presented here, especially in my Complete Community Connection and mobile-first strategy posts, into real, thriving business practices.
I am grateful to Publisher Dave Storey for giving me the opportunity and honor to be Editor of The Gazette and gazetteonline. I am grateful to the outstanding journalists I worked with here for their friendship and for the amazing journalism that we produced together. Working with them during and after the 2008 floods will always be a highlight of my career. My Gazette colleagues are embarked on a difficult but important innovation path and I am pleased that Chuck Peters is interested in a possible continuing role for me in that work as a consultant.
I started in the newspaper business in the 1960s as a carrier for the Columbus Citizen-Journal, an Ohio paper that folded in the 1980s. I wrote my first professional stories in 1971 for the Evening Sentinel, a Shenandoah, Iowa, newspaper that folded in the 1990s. I was present for the deaths of the Des Moines Tribune in 1982 and the Kansas City Times in 1990. I knew a lifetime’s worth of newspaper carnage before I read my first story on the World Wide Web.
I never blamed the Internet for a speck of the newspaper industry’s problems. From my first glimpses of the digital world, I saw nothing but opportunity. That’s what I see now: Opportunity.
Congrats, Steve! And an early welcome (back) to the DC area.
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Thanks, Greg!
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A great choice! Congratulations, Steve.
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Good luck, Steve.
Would love your thoughts on this article, which relates to the media connecting with communities and your new job.
http://www.dix-eaton.com/thought-pieces/the-fight-for-local-news-is-changing-the-media-and-impacting-those-they-cover/
Best,
David
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Big congrats, Steve.
The East Coast is welcoming the news with a little Midwestern snow, it appears.
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I can handle snow.
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Congratulations, Steve
And as for you Jim Brady, what a smart move!
Salud!
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Congratulations, Steve! Sounds like an exciting opportunity. I’ll be watching with keen interest.
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And the rest of Iowa’s papers sigh in relief. Less change and less competition here in the Hawkeye state.
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Congratulations! I look forward to your continued tweets and blogs about this new adventure.
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[…] latest has Steve Buttry, the one-time editor of The Gazette and GazetteOnline, leaving the company and returning to our nation’s capital to become Director of Community Engagement for a yet-to-be-named local content site focusing on […]
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Congratulations, Steve. This should be an exciting new opportunity for you – Brady couldn’t have made a better choice.
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Congratulations. As always, you will shine and do great things!
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Just reading your stuff, I can tell this is a big loss for your former employer and a big win for Jim Brady et al. It’s fantastic to see smart people find great opportunities amidst the gloomy talk in the local media arena. I wrote up a piece on how great progress was made during the Great Depression by smart companies while others pulled back. See it here – http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/20821.asp. It’s also well documented how companies such as HP, GE, Microsoft, Disney, etc. all started in deep downturns. If you have a bit of capital, it’s the best time to start a new business.
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Congratulations, Steve. You’ll be back in DC, so let’s grab lunch sometime. I’m at 20th and K.
Diane
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Steve,
Way to go! I was at the Gazette in 1976, worshipped at the feet of Frank Nye and Phyllis Fleming, went to work for Drake Mabry at the DM Tribune, Gene Roberts at the Philadelphia Inquirer, a bunch of editors whose names I don’t remember at the San Jose Mercury News, and for John Curley at the SF Chronicle. Founded, with John Coate, SFGate.com, moved to Wired Digital as editor-in-chief, founded my own magazine and Web site in Mammoth, Calif., signed on with Examiner.com, was a Senior Editor at Oakland Magazine and now I’m trying to make sense out of a non-profit news outfit here in S.F.
Obviously I’m a believer in moving on, moving on.
Good luck in this new gig. It sounds like something *I* would do. (Uh-oh.)
george shirk
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Congrats, Steve. I started at Congressional Quarterly in DC way back in the early ’70s. Great meeting you at the ASNE Public Trust Through Public Engagement gathering at RJI in Missouri. With you and Jim Brady involved, I’m sure this will be a winner.
Here’s one suggestion for you guys: Take the TAO of Journalism Pledge — A Commitment to Transparency, Accountability and Openness. I think if everyone doing journalism in any form made this pledge, we’d all be better off — more credible, more trusted, and more financially successful as a result! For details, see my latest blog if you missed it on Romenesko earlier this week: http://wanewscouncil.org/blog/?p=25 All the best!
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Great quote at the end 😉
Best of luck in D.C. Hope you read about everything here on your blog.
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Good luck, Steve. Keep us in mind when you start having internships or needing student help.
Karen Mitchell
Missouri School of Journalism
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Oh Steve, I just read this (haven’t talked to mom & dad) and I must say my heart is a little smashed into pieces! I hate to see you leave the Midwest, but it’s a great move for you. You will be closer to Tom and Mike and that little grandbaby that is on the way. I have always felt such a connection with you, and having you close was so nice.. I will miss that. We will have to have one last pizza or spaghetti blow out!! Congratulations!!
Love you!
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I’ll add my voice to the chorus. Great move for you and for Allbritton. It will be a magnificent adventure, I am sure.
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Congratulations Steve. I look forward to see the innovation you bring to your new post!
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Congratulations Jim Brady and Allbritton Communications. Have fun as you continue to influence and better the world of news, Steve.
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Thanks to all for your congratulations and encouragement. I was overwhelmed with the response today, and keeping up on email, Twitter, Facebook, phone calls and blog comments became a challenge, especially when I had to catch an afternoon flight to California (leading a seminar in Berkeley today). I truly appreciate the response and will respond to some of you individually when I can.
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Nice move! Another grand adventure. This should be fun for you!
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Whoa! Congrats, Steve!
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Hey Steve — I can’t keep up with you! Congratulations on the new job. I attended your excellent seminar in Ottawa, and I am now more of a Twitter convert. Sorry I didn’t say hi — I had laryngitis and it hurt to speak.
Good luck in the new job. J
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Congrats! I’m quite jealous.
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Congratulations Steve. It is a huge loss for the Gazette and for Iowa.
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[…] 12, 2010 by Steve Buttry As one who is leaving the newspaper business for a digital startup, it pains me just a bit to write this blog post. As one who spent 38 years in […]
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Congratulations, Steve — and welcome to DC! … If you need advice on neighborhoods, lunch spots, or the best place to sit at Nationals’ games, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
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Thanks, Alan. We lived in the DC area from 2005 to 2008, so I know the area well (still have a condo in Herndon). But I will be in touch.
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[…] Steve Buttry About: Steve is the new Director of Community Engagement for a new digital news operation in Washington, DC. He’s also been a reporter, editor, and […]
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[…] Tomorrow morning Mimi and I will start our drive to Virginia, weather permitting, for my new adventure with Allbritton […]
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Congrats, Steve! Good luck at your next stop.
~ Stephen
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Best of luck in the move, Steve. I thought of you yesterday when I received an initial note about the narrative journalism conference, which apparently has moved from the Nieman Foundation to the BU School of Journalism. Gay Talese leads a great lineup. Hope you can make it.
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Thanks, Ken! Not sure whether I’ll make it to the narrative conference. This new venture will command my full attention for quite some time.
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[…] and might have let it pass. But it was a great example of community engagement and that’s my new job, so I decided I had to take the time to analyze the performance of @statesman Social Media Editor […]
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[…] pursuit led to two new jobs, first as editor of The Gazette and gazetteonline and now I’ve left the newspaper business to join a digital local news operation in the Washington metro […]
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[…] is one of the most pressing issues I face as I work on community engagement plans for the metro Washington local news site for Allbritton Communications (we’ll have a name soon, so I can stop using that mouthful, or […]
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[…] I work on community engagement plans for a startup Washington metro news operation, I know that the user experience we provide will determine our success. We need to give […]
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[…] 22, 2010 by Steve Buttry One of the exciting things about my new job is that we’re going to try some things that haven’t been done before. We’re going to try some […]
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[…] various ideas for news commenting. Steve Buttry, who’s working on a fledgling as-yet-unnamed Washington news site wondered whether news orgs could find ways to create two tiers of commenting — one for ID’d, […]
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[…] of San Diego is hiring an Engagement Editor, which sounds a lot like my title, Director of Community Engagement. Whenever the position is filled, I will start networking with this new colleague. Maybe a couple […]
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[…] hope and expect that our efforts at Allbritton Communications will provide many examples of successful mobile projects for others to follow. But for now, I will […]
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[…] 22, 2010 by Steve Buttry I love the new name of the Washington metro news operation I joined in February: TBD. Click that link to read […]
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[…] I spent nine months looking for my next gig, landing at TBD as Director of Community Engagement. So I studied the issue from the hunter perspective. More recently I have filled five positions on […]
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[…] a class in developing an iPhone application. By February, I bailed out on the class to make the biggest career jump of my life, joining TBD to plan and execute a community engagement strategy that made heavy use of […]
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[…] writing this blog. Other posts among the year’s leaders dealt with my job change as well: Pursuing a new opportunity in Washington, Wanted: vision for community engagement and Our community engagement team is taking shape. Another […]
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[…] Pursuing a new opportunity in Washington January 2010 51 comments […]
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job. Not to mention that he is working as a Director of Community
Engagement at TBD, a top news website covering Washington D.C. How
does that sound for a job in […]
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[…] examples of how people can creatively apply for a job. Not to mention that he is working as a Director of Community Engagement at TBD, a top news website covering Washington D.C. How does that sound for a job in […]
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[…] I announced that I was leaving Cedar Rapids to join Jim Brady’s as-yet-unnamed and still optimistic local news venture in Washington, Jeff immediately sent me an email saying he wanted to join our team. He stood out […]
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[…] I’ve been answering that question some since joining the Journal Register Co. (and answered the same question last year when I went to TBD to lead community engagement efforts). […]
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[…] But I know that my blogging was directly related to the contacts that led eventually to my jobs at TBD and Journal Register Co. That’s how you monetize a blog. You use it to become a voice in your […]
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[…] Here’s why many of these buzzwords are the accurate terminology to use, starting with the term in my job title (and my previous job title): […]
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[…] models, dominated my time at the American Press Institute from 2005 to 2008. My short tenures at Gazette Communications and TBD and my current job at Journal Register Co. are rooted in efforts to develop a successful […]
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[…] never fully understand, the Gazette didn’t attempt the depth of innovation I had hoped, and I moved on from there in 2010. I left the newspaper business for TBD, a local digital news operation affiliated with Washington […]
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[…] or could have anticipated. It was time for me to find my next gig. It took me several months to land my next job with TBD, and I’m grateful Chuck gave me plenty of time to find the next job. It was important for my […]
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