New York, June 19, 2012– Social news leader BuzzFeed announced today its expansion plans for a Washington, D.C. bureau and has hired John Stanton to lead its coverage as Washington Bureau Chief. Stanton, a veteran of Capitol Hill, will oversee expanded coverage of Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court. Chris Geidner joins BuzzFeed as Senior Political Reporter and will continue his aggressive, news-driven coverage of politics and policies of LGBT issues and of the battles over marriage.
“John Stanton is a reporter’s reporter, with ink running in his veins and a great voice on the page and on Twitter,” said Ben Smith, BuzzFeed’s Editor-in-Chief. “His hard-hitting, original reporting and creative thinking is exactly the sort of fast, smart, revelatory work that succeeds on the social web.”
Smith continued, “Chris Geidner is the fastest, best-sourced reporter on his beat. The marriage wars and gay rights battles are some of the key stories of the decade; stories that readers from BuzzFeed to social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit care about deeply. It deserves to be treated with a fair mind as a front-line political beat, and Chris is uniquely positioned to turn BuzzFeed into a hub for that coverage.”
"Ben and the BuzzFeed Politics team have quickly become the go to source for 2012 campaign news and I couldn't be more thrilled at the opportunity to bring that energy and excellence to Washington,” said Stanton.
"Political journalism is changing rapidly because of the social web, and no one gets that the way that BuzzFeed does. I am very excited to be joining Ben Smith's political team where I can cover the constant developments relating to the rights and lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in real time,” said Geidner.
Stanton will begin reporting for BuzzFeed on July 9 and Geidner on July 16.
John Stanton has covered Congress, the White House and the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. since 1997, most recently for Roll Call. During his time at Roll Call, Stanton extensively covered former Sen. Ted Stevens’ (R-Alaska) ethics scandals and Elana Kagan and Sonia Sotomayors’ Supreme Court nominations. Previously, Stanton worked for National Journal’s Congress Daily, where he covered Senate leadership, transportation and energy legislation and the Boston and New York protests during the 2004 conventions. Stanton began his career in journalism in 1997 at Inside Washington Publishers where he covered various federal agencies. Stanton has been called the “last true renegade on Capitol Hill” and has appeared on Fox News, MSNBC and is a regular guest on The Rachel Maddow Show.
Chris Geidner is a journalist covering political and legal topics with a focus on issues impacting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, most recently as the senior political editor at Metro Weekly, Washington, D.C.’s LGBT newsmagazine. Geidner has been covering Congress, the White House and the courts for Metro Weekly since December 2009. Geidner has won journalism awards from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Geidner is a graduate of Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law and was previously a private practice attorney and senior lawyer in the Ohio Attorney General’s office.
For more information on BuzzFeed, visit http://www.buzzfeed.com and for a link to this press release, visit http://www.buzzfeed.com/press/releases.
Media Contact:
Ashley McCollum
BuzzFeed
ashley.mccollum@buzzfeed.com
347-977-1411
About BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed is a leading social news organization, intensely focused on delivering high-quality original reporting, insight, and viral content across a rapidly expanding array of subject areas. Our technology powers the social distribution of content, detects what is trending on the web, and connects people in realtime with the hottest content of the moment. Our site is rapidly growing and reaches more than 20 million monthly unique visitors. Jonah Peretti, founder & CEO of BuzzFeed, previously co-founded the Huffington Post. Ben Smith is its Editor-in-chief.
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