Starting Monday, I will be the editor for online news and citizen media for the Contra Costa Times. It's a new position, and I'm very excited about this opportunity.
It's a return to where I spent the '90s as a reporter, assistant metro editor, county bureau chief and, finally, online editor. The title shows how things have changed since I left Contra Costa in 2000 to help start GetLocalNews.com.
I won't say much more here about the new gig. You'll have to check in periodically at ContraCostaTimes.com to see what we're up to.
For GetLocalNews, I wish only the best. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help conceive and build a citizen journalism network before we even knew to call it that.
The future of this blog? Don't know yet.
Hope you continue with it. It's a great site and resource.
Posted by: Dan | Friday, July 08, 2005 at 11:52 AM
Hi Ari - got your email and checked out the blog. Good work here. Best of luck in your new work. I think you made a really wise choice leaving GetLocalNew.com - I left them (and you, sorry to say)long ago. Loved the concept, couldn't stand the product.
Posted by: Roger Straw | Saturday, July 09, 2005 at 10:45 AM
Thanks, Dan and Roger.
Roger, regarding GetLocalNews, my departure had much more to do with the opportunity I was offered at the Contra Costa Times than anything else. I'm proud of what we built at GetLocalNews and believe it has great potential. I know from our discussions that you were concerned -- understandably so -- about the potshots in the form of anonymous message board comments on your BeniciaNews.com columns. We wrestled with that problem, playing with different forms of message board moderation, continually re-evaluating our system and how it was being used. For better or worse, that's not just a GetLocalNews problem; it's a tremendous challenge facing all sites that enable reader comments. The good news is that because more and more sites now enable reader comments (although some have abandoned them), we can learn from each other's experiences and apply best practices. Clearly, this is an area of online news sites that will continue to evolve for some time.
Posted by: Ari | Saturday, July 09, 2005 at 11:31 AM
Congrats, Ari!
Posted by: Mike Orren | Saturday, July 09, 2005 at 12:02 PM
Mazel Tov. I hope you had a good first day at work at the CCT.
Posted by: B.S. | Monday, July 11, 2005 at 03:19 PM