Garrett Graff | Archive

My New Job

Comments Off 19 August 2009

Last week I was officially named the new editor of The Washingtonian, where I’ve worked now for just about four years, becoming just the 3rd editor in the 44-year history of the magazine. I’m tremendously excited about the opportunity and the promotion. It’s always been a dream of mine, yet one that I thought would be years down the road. Jack Limpert, who as the Examiner explained is “a living institution at one of America’s most successful city glossies,” is stepping down to my old title (editor at large) and will continue to be involved on a daily basis; I’m particularly happy that I’m going to be able to work with him as I learn how to do all that the new position entails.

There was a fair amount of pretty amusing media coverage of the announcement, most of focusing on the handover of the magazine from a 75-year-old longtime magazine legend to a 28-year-old new media newbie. Here are some of the choice excerpts:

The Washington Post called me a “hotshot” in their write-up; Portfolio headlined “And a Child Shall Edit Them,” noting that Jack’s been editor “12 years longer than his replacement has been alive”; and the Washington Examiner noted that I was “a 28-year-old former blogger who has been with the magazine for one-tenth of Limpert’s tenure.”

Gawker’s post made me laugh: “Young Garrett Graff, who started at Fishbowl DC at the age of like 15 (ROUGH ESTIMATE) and then got a job at Washingtonian, is now the new editor of Washingtonian. He is an up and coming whippersnapper if we have ever seen one. Don’t end up a cabinet member recommending foreign wars based on vague Georgetown cocktail party gossip ten years from now, Garrett. That’s how they get you.”

Perhaps my favorite commentary on the incident was the mean-spirited back-and-forth on the Washington Post’s story, including this one: “Ben Bradlee he ain’t.”

Anyway, I’m quite excited. As I told my hometown newspaper, The Times Argus, for their story: “Becoming editor, I’m not sure there is a better job in Washington, except for maybe President of the United States.”

General

Youth Vote and Technology

Comments Off 05 November 2008

As this seemingly endless election nears its final days, I’ve been talking nearly endlessly about the themes of “The First Campaign” and especially about young voters. I’ve given something like a dozen speeches in the last two weeks of this election, including at George Washington, the University of Florida, and Harvard Business School just yesterday.

The subject of new media seems particularly of interest to foreign political groups visiting the U.S.; I’ve spoken recently to groups from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, France, Germany, and a whole host of Latin American countries.

Here are some of the articles that I’ve been quoted in recently:

Miami Herald:

Garrett Graff, author of The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House, believes young voters — especially the first-timers — are savvier and more committed than they’re getting credit for.

Graff pointed to the Iowa caucuses: “Four times as many under-30 voters participated in the Iowa caucuses this year as in 2004. In Missouri we saw three times as many, and in Tennessee three times as many.”

Graff believes that outreach to younger voters using technology familiar to that age group — text messaging and social websites such as Facebook — will keep them engaged through Election Day.

I was also a guest on The Guardian’s weekly tech podcast: “Garrett Graff of the Washingtonian told me more than a month ago that if Barack Obama won the election it would be because of his innovative use of the mobile phones. Mobile phones were part of an overall digital strategy that turned millions of supporters into an army of volunteers and donors. Even before the general election, Obama’s internet strategy had already proven decisive, Garrett said. He had already defeated the most powerful machine in the Democratic Party: The Clintons.”

The Boston Phoenix: “McCain is actually no Luddite…. But you wouldnít know that from the way the McCain campaign has seemed to distance itself from technology. Though the Republican candidateís Web site does have the nowadays-requisite Flash videos and a blog thatís updated a few times a day, ‘the McCain campaign seems like itís going out of its way to avoid using modern technology,’ says Garrett M. Graff, author of The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the White House. ‘There is no documented proof that the McCain campaign has sent out a text message. I have never heard of it [a McCain text message], and I know of no one who has.’”

Now, just for the record, the McCain campaign did, after this article came out, send a single text message to voters the day before the election. One text message. Once.

Continuing my unofficial international speaking tour, I’m off to Duke next weekend for a panel and then on to the University of Missouri, Westminster College, and then, of all places, Spain to speak at the 2008 NewsXchange conference.

General

Bragging Rights

Comments Off 05 November 2008

I called it! Back in January, the day after the Barack Obama lost the New Hampshire primary, during a TV interview for a New York show called “The Digital Age,” I predicted that Obama would still be the nominee for the party and then go on to win the election:

I’m happy today that it was caught on video. On the other hand, if Hillary had won, I probably wouldn’t be bragging about my crystal ball powers.

General

Hey Big Spender

Comments Off 26 October 2008

I’ve got a piece in today’s New York Post about the incredible amount of money that’s been raised so far in this presidential election. I’ve been following this story for two years and even I was surprised when I dove into the numbers.

Here’s the chart that accompanied the article: