Peter Hamby, a well-sourced CNN political reporter who just published an extensive look at the impact of Twitter on the 2012 election, is joining the network's digital team as a national political reporter.
The full memo, obtained by The Huffington Post, is below:
Hi gang. Here's some more great news:
Peter Hamby is joining the digital team as a national political reporter. Think digital correspondent a la Kelly Wallace, but on a classic beat for CNN.
Hamby's sources and story ideas run as thick as the bureaucracy in Washington. His specialty is national politics -- the hot campaigns, candidates and characters. A lot of stuff outside of the district.
He will use his powerful social presence (over 40K fans and political junkies follow him on Twitter), swift and mad writing skills (check out this piece on the ethics scandal in Virginiaor his snap analysis of Chris Christie at the RNC meeting) and his on-air experience to deliver scoops and create a conversation across CNN's platforms, screens and via social media. Expect to see franchises that span platforms and formats from Hamby soon.
But that's not all. He's fresh back from a prestigious Shorenstein fellowship at Harvard, where he got to think big thoughts on the future of media, in particular, looking at the impact of today's accelerated digital news environment on the 2012 presidential race and the future of political campaigns. The NYT wrote about Hamby's study earlier this week, and Hamby did his own must-read piece for us that is making the rounds.
He's going to bring all that and more into this great new role.
Join me, Sam, Andrew and KC in congratulating Hamby ("Peter" just sounds so formal), and in welcoming even more of his wonderful voice across all of CNN.