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Macon Phillips is the top new media director in the business. I say that because he has the best job in the business: Director of New Media for the White House.
What qualifies Phillips for such a prestigious post? Here is a look at his background:
Phillips is a former director of strategy and communications for Washington, DC-based Blue State Digital, a private web design firm that eventually became closely tied to the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign for whom he worked for as an internet strategist. Phillips had previously worked for Democratic Florida State Senator Rod Smith as a senior strategist during the 2006 Florida gubernatorial election. He had also worked for Ted Kennedy.
Phillips was the Director of New Media for the Presidential transition of Barack Obama and had oversight responsibility for Change.gov. In fact, he turned the website on the morning after the 2008 Barack Obama election victory speech. Prior to that he was involved in BarackObama.com and directed the technological initiative to announce the selection of Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee to be Vice President of the United States. Philips' new media efforts during the 2008 United States presidential election helped raise vast sums of money for the Obama presidential campaign, while his text messaging, online videos and social networking skills led the campaign in many organizational and informational ways. Blue State Digital created and managed Obama's campaign site, which brought in a million Facebook friends and about $500 million.
It is not right to expect that a new media director for, say, Governor David Paterson would have the qualifications that Phillips brings to the table. So when Governor Paterson's communications staff brings a new media director aboard, it is worth looking at what qualifies her for the post.
Melanie Hartgraves will be the new media director. What qualifies for the post? It is hard to say. Here is her background (from her LinkedIn page):
Assignment Editor
Special Projects Producer
News Assistant
Producer
WRGB CBS 6 News
(Broadcast Media industry)
September 2006 - Present (3 years 3 months)
(Note: Hartgraves, during her three-plus years with WRGB, served in those four posts at some point, not all four positions at once.)
Intern
Capital News Nine
(Broadcast Media industry)
2005 - 2005 (less than a year)
Obviously, those of us at TAP know what a new media director does. We have at least one new media director (Phillip) within our ranks. The position is a necessity in politics and governance. Using the Internet to show the state what you're doing is a great strategy by the governor's press office. Now they just need someone who is qualified for the job.
Unfortunately for them, and with all due respect to Ms. Hartgraves, she is not qualified.
Broadcast media experience is great for your average communications position. It is good to have people with diverse communications backgrounds in a press shop. I believe you should have someone from newspapers, TV, radio and the Internet. The last of those is where your new media director comes in and while Ms. Hartgraves would fit in for just about any other job, she is not qualified to become a new media director.
A new media director is in charge of shaping, in this case, the governor's new media strategy. This means making the governor's website, which is below average, much more accessible and user-friendly. This means utilizing things like blogs to promote the governor's agenda. This means turning to Facebook and Twitter and using those mediums to build the governor's profile and allow citizens access to their state's top executive.
Nothing in Ms. Hartgraves' background shows that she will be able to implement such a strategy, let alone form one.
But like most hires in Albany, I doubt this had anything to do with qualifications (clearly, it didn't). I'm sure there was someone she knew, someone she had some contacts with and someone who decided that they had this job open so it was worth it for a friend. Other than that, it's hard to explain why they would hire a TV producer to be a new media director.
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