As you may have heard, I will be leaving The Times at the beginning of October to start a new role at The Guardian as their Digital Development Editor.
The Times
Over the past few years I’ve been fortunate to have worked in the team at the centre of The Times’ move to a digital subscription model. Developing the social and engagement strategy for the site has given me the opportunity to think about (and sometimes challenge) what we now consider to be integral functions of news sites – sharing, commenting and conversing with our readers. I believe this has given me a far better understanding of just what is possible online.
I’ve enjoyed working with editors and our developers to introduce digital tools and skills into the newsroom – from live analytics boards and data journalism tools, to training on social media and reader engagement. I’ve also benefited from working across departments, developing 24/7 live support with our customer service team and increasing the community engagement roles of our moderators. I’ve also had the chance to help build fun projects such as our Twitter Word Nerd game.
I’ve had my successes and my failures but I’ve always tried to learn the lessons from each. I leave The Times grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given and with immensely fond feelings for the friendly and very talented people I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside. I wish them every success in the future.
The Guardian
The new role at The Guardian is a great opportunity for me and I’m very much looking forward to starting in mid-November. In the meantime, I’ll be at the next Hacks/Hackers meet up on 28 September and you can keep up with me on Twitter @timesjoanna – I’m going to have to update that username!