Mediaite Managing Editor Colby Hall To Depart For Senior Role At Clear Channel

For the past three years, I have completely dedicated my life to developing, launching, and managing Mediaite.com. Please forgive the cliche, but it has truly been a labor of love — nearly every single minute has been challenging and rewarding. So it is with mixed emotions that I announce my plans to step down as Managing Editor, to embark on a very exciting new career chapter at the beginning of next year.

After the holidays, I will begin work in a senior-level position at the New York offices of Clear Channel. The details of my new role will be revealed in a few weeks, but I hope to bring some of the success we’ve enjoyed at Mediaite, in terms of relevance, buzz, and creative content, to a completely different, significantly broader, and more corporate platform.

I am incredibly proud of having run a site that has become the go-to destination in the hyper-competitive world of news, media, and politics. The fact that we now welcome 6 million unique visitors per month (including syndicated content and video views) in just over two years, without having spent a penny on marketing and promotion, is a testament to the very hard work and hustle of our incredibly talented staff. As strange as it sounds, I will most miss the rigor of running a media political news site 24 hours a day with a very lean and hungry team of writers and editors, and the charge that comes along with it.

At this point in my life, however, the opportunity presented by a media giant like Clear Channel is too good for the family man in me to pass up. Despite my disappointment at having to leave Mediaite, I am excited at the prospect of applying the lean-and-mean lessons I’ve learned here to a more expansive business.

The good news is that Mediaite founder Dan Abrams has agreed to have me continue to write for Mediaite as an Editor-at-Large. I want to thank Dan for being supportive throughout this process, and for advising me through this decision, not just as a boss, but also as a friend.

If it seems as though I’m leaving things unsaid, it’s because this note is intended only to be an announcement. I will have much more to say in a farewell post, in the next week or so. Until then, it’s back to work.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.