I’m excited to announce that we’ve hired Matt Haber as editor-in-chief of Gazetteer SF.
Matt, our first ever editor-in-chief, joins us at a critical time: I launched this site just about a year ago with the belief that we could build an audience for smart, lively, engaging local news while working outside of the platforms that control our access to information. Year one of Gazetteer SF has shown that it’s possible to report interesting stories about San Francisco without participating in the distribution schemes and algorithms of other companies: Just news, delivered. Now it’s time to grow our audience and show our competitors and colleagues at other publications what’s possible when you bet on your team.
Matt’s professional experience has prepared him for this challenge. In 2004, he joined The Village Voice as its first online managing editor, ushering the venerable alt-weekly to the digital age. (Alas, the Voice folded, but that wasn’t Matt’s fault.) He was also a senior editor for The New York Observer, editing media scoops and commentary as the small, salmon-colored newspaper grew on the web. (The Observer also died in print, but, again, Matt was long gone.) He’s also edited for Radar (gone, too) and Gawker (RIP), and The Atlantic Wire, The Atlantic’s short-lived breaking news and analysis vertical. (I’m beginning to sense a pattern here.)
Most recently, Matt served as senior editor for Alta Journal and San Francisco bureau chief for Inc. He’s also written for The New York Times, New York, The Guardian, Esquire, and others. Thankfully, the publications in this paragraph are very much alive and kicking.
Matt joins our Market Street newsroom which includes Joshua Bote, Joel Rosenblatt, Eddie Kim, Lorraine Campos, and (very soon) some new hires. Together we’ll continue to tell the stories of San Francisco. As you may have noticed, there’s a lot of news here: Gazetteer is committed to bringing it to you with speed, accuracy, and style. It sounds cheesy, but the most important members of our team are you, the readers. Thank you for reading, subscribing, and sharing what we do.