About

OK, I’ve just read through the last thing I wrote here and it’s woefully out of date!

So here is an attempt at something new:

I am web development editor, business, community editor for The Times, London.

My job includes, amongst other things, developing digital content for business news and looking at the future of Times Online looking at the future engagement strategy for thetimes.co.uk and, more recently, looking at how we use digital tools in our journalism and how we better integrate multi-platform publication into the workflow of the newsroom.

My big interests are the changing business models for news and digital and investigative journalism. I therefore believe I’m living through one of the most exciting periods in newspaper history.

One day I hope to see journalists able to earn a living from a product I helped devise and develop.  But in these changing times, whether I’ll achieve that is anyone’s guess!

I am also the founder of Hacks/Hackers London and (a very long time ago) the Birmingham Social Media Cafe.

Also, please remember that the views expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employers . Thanks!

Nice things people have said about me:

Roy Greenslade, media commentator and professor of journalism at City University:

“That most enterprising of newspaper bloggers”

Jeff Jarvis, journalism professor at the City University of New York:

“She thinks in the new way: open, networked, relying on and trusting the gift economy and respecting her readers and what they know…”

Paul Bradshaw, senior lecturer in online journalism at BCU:

“The Times needs someone like Jo. Please form an orderly queue at her door, and give her all the money, help and time she asks for…”

Gary Andrews, ITV Online Engagement:

“If journalism is going to be saved, she’s one of the people who’ll be saving it.”

I can be found in numerous places online – the most common being:

Twitter as @joannageary (or @timesjoanna if I’m working)

LinkedIn

Facebook

If it’s work-related you can also get me on email joanna.geary[at]thetimes.co.uk or the telephone on 020 7782 5065.

I always find “about” pages hard to write, so I have borrowed a biography used for a panel debate:

Joanna Geary is a young digital journalist using social media to build communities around regional newspapers.

She started her career at The Birmingham Post as a business journalist and, since then, has gone on to design build and maintain the newspaper’s new blogging platform bringing together more than 30 journalists, industry leaders, academics and experienced bloggers.

She has also launched The Birmingham Post’s new news, business, sport and lifestyle feeds on micro-blogging service Twitter.

It’s a little outdated as it was written before I became web development editor for The Times, but I think you get the gist.