Mediaite is bringing back old blood.
Colby Hall, who previously ran Dan Abram‘s Mediaite, is returning as interim managing editor for an agreed upon period of three months. At which point the collaboration will be reviewed.
Hall was there at the site’s inception in 2009. He left Mediaite for Clear Channel in 2011.
“With so much going on in politics and media, I am thrilled to be back at Mediaite,” Hall told The Mirror. “I plan to continue to post the sorts of stories and video clips that have led to remarkable traffic growth, but also return some of the insights, columns and original reporting that led to our initial growth when we launched the site years ago.”
Hall has no idea if this will be a longterm venture. “Dan and I have agreed to at least a three month commitment for me to manage the site, but who knows how that might evolve,” he said. “I am excited to be back.”
He added, “I do look forward to increasing coverage of early 80’s detective series like Hart to Hart and Kate and Allie. Those shows have been seriously overlooked.”
The site has undergone a variety of shifts at the top over the last several years.
Mediaite lost its last managing editor, Jon Nicosia, in March when IJR gobbled him up. His title is managing editor of content. As Politico noted in a piece last month, Nicosia is a “colorful character” who did “two stints” in prison for larceny and bank fraud. He also tried to pass himself off as a former trauma surgeon.
Andrew Kirell worked at Mediaite between 2012 and 2015. He was the site’s editor-in-chief for two years before leaving for The Daily Beast, where he is a senior editor.
In early 2012, Tommy Christopher, formerly a liberal columnist for the site, wrote a complimentary farewell story on Hall. Most of the reporters commended Hall on his ability to mine through the complexities of their minds for good ideas amid the rubble.
Christopher, now a senior writer at ShareBlue, recalled their fights.
“The short version is…I can really be a prick,” he wrote. “When Colby and I have a disagreement about something, it usually goes like this: 10 minutes or so of heated G-Chat, at which time I will call Colby on that tin-can-and-string he calls a cellphone, and we’ll argue for a few minutes, before he hangs up on me. Then, after a few minutes, we’ll G-Chat a little more, and about 60-70% of the time, I lose the argument.”