Jim Roberts, the former executive editor of Mashable who was recently ousted in a shakeup of the company’s editorial ranks, is joining the Hill as a consultant to create a new opinion section for the Capitol Hill newspaper.
Roberts will “focus on bringing diversified views from top minds,” to The Hill over the next few months, according to the announcement from Editor-in-Chief Bob Cusack.
Jim has a proven ability to manage expansion into new verticals and guide the development of platforms and content that keep readers engaged. At a time when The Hill is growing faster than ever, Jim’s knowledge and expertise will be a powerful addition to our team.
Roberts is the second marquee digital journalist brought aboard by The Hill as of late; in January 2015, the paper hired Neetzan Zimmerman as its director of audience and strategy. Zimmerman is the former editor in chief of Whisper and has been hailed as a viral traffic Svengali.
Both Roberts and Zimmerman are part of a broader remaking of The Hill and Capitol Hill newspapers in general chronicled by The New York Times in May. Once relatively insulated from financial turmoil by a reliable subscriber base and steady advertising, The Hill and its peer publications are now battling it out with digitally savvy competitors like Politico and weathering a loss in ads spurred in part by a gridlocked legislature.
