1-11-11: Starting a new career chapter

I love the symmetry in today's date. It strikes me as a good omen for the transition I'm making today -- from a print-oriented editor to a web-first journalist. I'm going from a job where each week I could choose freely among topics -- ranging from anything connected to Oregon to an international issue --  to a new Portland-centric mindset where the emphasis is on neighborhood and community news..

Why the transition? And why now?

Two days ago we announced to readers that The Oregonian's Sunday Opinion pages will no longer consist of a  separate, stand-alone section of six broadsheet pages, but instead will be contained on three pages within the Metro section. I knew this downsizing was coming, following discussions with some of the paper's top editors that began in early December. I've kept the news mostly to myself since then, preferring to focus on the last few Sunday sections while also laying the groundwork for the change.

I've loved the job I had for the past 3 1/2 years, as it kept me in the flow of what people were talking and thinking about and opened the door to countless personal friendships and professional relationships that together broadened my exposure to ideas and experiences different from my own.

But the time has come to do something else.

While the move away from a free-standing Opinion section is partly driven by a desire to cut newsprint costs, it's also part and parcel of The Oregonian's full-body embrace of journalism on the web. In order to keep pushing in the latter direction, you've got to make trade-offs in terms of where you direct your energies. I understand that and I'm fine with it.

For those who've long been accustomed to getting their news and opinions in print, it may be hard to grasp just exactly what my new job entails. For those who feel comfortable in the universe of online media, it's not much of a stretch. It's about building reader engagement, through personal contacts and more interactive features, on our Portland community news pages. It's about creating a greater sense of immediacy and increasing the pages’ visibility and impact, through social media, community outreach and other approaches.

Details of my job description and job title are still being worked out but this much is clear: I'm essentially closing the book on my career as a print journalist and launching fully into the online world. It's daunting, it's exciting, it's filled with possibility and risk -- all at the same timie -- and I suspect it will surprise and reward me in ways I've not envisioned. With a talented and supportive group of colleagues around me, it really is an amazing opportunity to reinforce and expand upon my new media skills.

I intend to keep up this blog but there may be an opportunity to launch a separate work-related blog in connection with my new duties. Stay tuned.