New Job and New Baby in the New Year

01 Jan, 2009

New Job and New Baby in the New Year

Posted by: Rob Bluey In: Family & Friends| On the Job

As the book is closed on 2008, I’m preparing for two big changes in the New Year. Starting today, I have a new job at The Heritage Foundation. And a few months from now, Missy and I will welcome Baby Bluey into the world.

In today’s day and age — when it’s nearly impossible to keep a secret — we managed to keep the baby news mostly private. But after pictures were posted on Facebook last week of Missy, it was fairly obvious. Yesterday, it reached Twitter. So now I’m making it official.

The due date is April 11 and we know we’re having a boy. This is our first and we couldn’t be happier.

As for the job, I’ve been asked to shift roles at Heritage — a scenario that’s becoming very familiar and trait I’ve clearly inherited from my father. When I was hired two years ago, I took over as director of the Center for Media and Public Policy. I was Heritage’s blogger-in-chief and responsible for our Computer-Assisted Research and Reporting program.

Less than a year later, it became clear we weren’t effectively communicating online. I was asked to be editor-in-chief of Heritage.org. My first move was to hire Conn Carroll from National Journal’s Hotline. A month later, we launched The Foundry, then debuted our daily Morning Bell email. Last summer when Todd Thurman joined us from Yahoo, we began aggressively using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google AdWords and many more tools in the digital toolbox. Gerrit Lansing brought fresh ideas to our Conservative Bloggers Briefing, including a weekly broadcast on BlogTalkRadio. The list goes on.

We won some policy battles and lost others, but through it all our team made great strides. Now it’s time to adapt and transform once again.

Today I officially become director of online strategy at Heritage, reporting to a new boss, Genevieve Wood, and handing over the day-to-day editorial responsibility so I can focus on online marketing strategies using a revamped Heritage website (coming in fall 2009), social media and advertising. I’ll be spending more time coordinating issue advocacy campaigns with coalition partners and working with my colleagues to better utilize Heritage’s wealth of policy research to fight an aggressive Obama administration.

The internal changes come amid much discussion and debate where online strategy fits within an institution. I’m fortunate to have a technologist (Tim McGovern) and a blogger (Conn Carroll) at Heritage with me. Rather than working in the IT or communications departments, though, I’m moving to heart of Heritage.

Over the past year, my blogging has suffered here on my personal blog and also at RedState. I began contributing to The Next Right and K Street Cafe when I could find the time, but it was often easier to write 140 characters on Twitter than 140 words. In my spare time, I hope to pursue my passion for reporting and writing about policy and politics — and, of course, Baby Bluey.

Looking ahead, 2009 promises to be an eventful year in Washington, and especially in my life. With a new job and new baby on the way, I’m sure it will have its ups and downs, but most of all it will be fun.