Nick Massella, a former D.C. publicist who worked for BrandLinkDC, is the new editor of FishbowlDC, a site that covers Washington media and parties. Out is Patrick Tutwiler, who has resigned his post after less than six months. His last day is May 15. Due to, ahem, personal passions, he’s retreating to his hometown of Raleigh, N.C.
Tutwiler arrived at the job with virtually no journalism experience — instead, he was a hopeful, budding comedian.
FishbowlDC has rarely been able to hang on to an editor for more than three years. It’s just not a place where writers stay too long, with the exception of myself, who stayed four years until I resigned last year for my current position at The Daily Caller.
As has historically been the case, the FBDC editor puts his or her unique spin on the site, as guidance and oversight from the New York City offices of Mediabistro is often blissfully slim or nonexistent. So we’ll wish Massella all the very best as the friendly bloke with a cat that ate the canary humor plunges into this new adventure.
News of Massella’s quick ascent to editor — he’s only been writing there a few months — seeped out on Facebook and Twitter last night via CNN publicist Matt Dornic, another FishbowlDC alum. (Note to everyone: We are everywhere. Garrett Graff, editor of Washingtonian, is on his way out; Politico‘s Patrick Gavin will soon leave his pub.; Christine Delargy is still at Politico with no plans to leave.)
Hey Nick — one piece of advice. If you f&%k anything up in your copy, a name, a comma, a typo, a misspelling, etc.., don’t expect the New York office to assist, no matter how dumb it is or easy to fix. To be sure, they’ll send an email and leave the error languishing for hours. But you’ll need to correct it. Essentially: your swimming skills need to be superb. Perhaps keep a life jacket nearby.
Congratulations to Massella — he has wanted this gig for awhile, he knows the game and the relevant people. In Washington, sometimes dreams really do come true.