As the site grows, the number of great options for Contributing Editors grows. As such, it seems to get harder every year.
As I wrote a couple of days ago in the nomination post, the alumni will still stick around unlike in past years. So with more backup, I thought I could get away with just 2-3 new contributing editors.
Well, that proved impossible. I had a "short-list" of 10, and that was after I came up with what I thought was a seriously constrictive set of guidelines: the candidates had to be multi-issue, level headed, community building, American, responsible, dependable, loyal and lack the big ego.
So given the limited number of slots, plenty of great diarists were passed over, and I feel honestly terrible about that. But this selection isn't a judgment on the value of any individual diarist. The talent pool is huge, and the next version of Daily Kos (ETA, a 12-14 months from now) will be designed in a way to allow greater top-level voices to emerge and shine.
That said, I don't think anyone can argue that the new class isn't worthy of elevation.
As hard as I tried, I couldn't manage 2-3. I had to expand to four. So without further ado, the new class will be:
BarbinMD
Devilstower
Kagro X
MissLaura
I'll be posting daily during the week, along with the three new Daily Kos fellows. The alumni can post whenever inspiration strikes. The new class of contributing editors will be tasked with weekend duty, Friday through Sunday, though given Kagro's stellar knowledge of parliamentary procedure, I'm sure we'll be calling on him regularly as Pelosi and Reid try to shepherd the Demcoratic agenda through Congress.
Finally, about those fellowships, the three who will be regular bloggers alongside me are:
All three will be working on books as part of their fellowships, and Hunter will manage the development of DK4. (We are currently in version 3.0.)
There are also two additional fellows -- Gina Cooper, head cheese at YearlyKos, and Will Rockafellow. Will will be in charge of one of my new projects, to be announced early next year, while Gina has become a priceless netroots resource.
As revenues increase, I'll be growing the fellowship program. Every time you see an ad you don't like, just remember that it'll be paying the salaries of some kick ass netroots activists.