A year ago in April, I announced with much excitement that I would be joining the Media Development Investment Fund (then the Media Development Loan Fund) to edit the Knowledge Bridge website and provide digital editorial training and consulting for their clients. We launched the site in May last year in public beta and then properly in November of last year. The project had two pillars: to build a website to capture actionable intelligence about digital media for the independent news organisations that MDIF invests in and news organisations like them, and to provide digital consulting and training for MDIF clients.
A couple of weeks ago, the decision was made to redefine the project and focus the website more closely on supporting the consulting pillar of Knowledge Bridge with content such as client training and seminar materials.
“Unfortunately,” MDIF’s head of communications Peter Whitehead told staff, “the changes mean that the website no longer needs an editor with Kevin’s depth of digital experience.”
MDIF was a great experience and a great team. I learned a lot working with the fund and its clients about product-led thinking and product development. That built on the product development experience that Suw and I gained as we worked with the executive editorial team at Firstpost.com to refine and launch the ground-breaking digital news site in India. In my work with MDIF and as a consultant, I gained global experience working with clients in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, the United States and Europe including Russia.
When I joined MDIF, I had just started to look for a full-time job, so I’ll pick up now where I left off last April. I might do some consulting and training while I search for the right job with the right organisation, but my ultimate goal is a full-time job with a news organisation or a digital media company. I bring almost two decades of experience in digital journalism in a wide variety of roles on staff with the BBC and The Guardian. As a digital strategist and journalism trainer, I have worked globally over the last three years for companies including Indian media giant Network 18, CNN International and Reed Business Information. If you’re not familiar with my background, you can check out my work history at LinkedIn. What you won’t see from that public profile on LinkedIn is the endorsements of my work.
From November 2010 through September 2011, I provided social media training for Al Jazeera English, Arabic, Balkans and Turk staff, both on-air and online. I also provided Al Jazeera online staff with general digital journalism training. Mohamed Nanabhay, then head of online for Al Jazeera English said of my work:
Kevin puts journalism into the internet and the internet into journalism – a rare skill in an industry where the trend is to focus on buzz words and shiny toys.
We hired him to train our newsroom on using social media for news gathering and production. His training was one of the reasons that our journalists were so well prepared to report on the events that unfolded in the Arab world in 2011.
Simon Rogers, the founding editor of The Guardian’s datablog and now data editor at Twitter, said of my work at The Guardian:
Some just know what the future looks like; Kevin is one of those people. Sharp, talented and farsighted, Kevin has played a vital, and under-reported role in Guardian.co.uk’s success, shaping the company’s digital vision, and producing fantastic journalism. The fact that he’s such a nice guy, well, that is a brilliant bonus.
As world editor of the BBC News website, Nic Newman was one of the three people on my interview board. Nic went on to work as the head or product development and technology for BBC News Interactive, where I worked for him to develop a strategic white paper on how BBC News could use blogging. He said:
Kevin was the BBC’s first online journalist in an overseas bureau. None of us knew what the role should be, but Kevin shaped it and made it work brilliantly. That is because he has an instinctive understanding of digital technology but also because he knows how to inspire and get the best out of journalistic colleagues. As with so much that Kevin did at the BBC, he was and is a pioneer, pushing the boundaries — but always with sense that technology serves journalism, not the other way around.
As I said, I am looking for a full-time editorial management, strategy or development position with a news organisation or digital media company. I have already applied for a number of exciting positions, both in the US and the UK, including editorial and strategy and development positions. We currently live in the UK. But as a dual US-UK citizen, I can work in both countries and both Suw and I are willing to relocate.
I have some scope to explore my options, and I want find the right job with the right organisation. If you have an opportunity that you think requires my skills, get in touch. We live in a time of great change and greater opportunity for journalism and digital media. I’m just as excited about the possibilities of digital media now as I was in 1996 when I got my first job in digital journalism, and I can’t wait to be a part of a new team.
If you want to talk, please drop me an email. I’m very much looking forward to hearing from you.