Two heavyweights leave The Californian

This has been a tough week in Bakersfield, as The Californian said goodbye to two supremely talented people who helped take our company to new heights.

Editor Mike Jenner left the paper today after nearly two decades in Bakersfield. He's taking a prime journalism teaching gig at his alma mater, the University of Missouri, one of the best journalism schools in the country. If there's paradise in a tumultuous business like ours, that might be it.

Mike started working with the paper as a design consultant 17 years ago, but soon was hired to fill a series of top newsroom and "new media" positions, including executive editor. I've never met anyone who had a better mix of news, design and technical skills. Some editors are great wordsmiths or managers but lack the knowledge or want to understand the processes and technology that can make or break good journalism. It's hard work to get "underneath the hood," but that knowledge is invaluable, and I've always marveled at Mike's thirst to understand exactly how things like press configurations worked so he could take full advantage in producing a newspaper every day.

Mike's list of accomplishments are numerous, but as I noted at a going-away party for him last week, I'll remember his balance of big-city sophistication and commitment to small-town community journalism. Too many editors can't or won't strike that balance. We're going to miss Mike dearly, but as he says, the paper is larger than us all and we'll move forward and continue to deliver journalism that matters.

Mike will thrive in his new job, which is a continuation of the teaching he's been doing every day since he arrived in our newsroom. And while Mike is a workaholic, I think he'll come to appreciate the different pace of academia, and relish the opportunity to smell the proverbial roses. Good luck to you, Mike.

-----

Also leaving this week is Dan Pacheco, our senior manager for digital products. After six years with The Californian, Dan has officially segued into a new role as CEO of FeedBrewer, a new corporation of which The Californian is a minority shareholder. We started planning Dan's transition six months ago but that doesn't make Wednesday's departure any easier.  

Dan, along with Mary Lou Fulton, was a key architect of Californian innovations like Northwest Voice (now Bakersfield Voice), Bakotopia and Bakomatic, an award-winning social-networking publishing platform.

Dan came to us from AOL and before that, WashingtonPost.com and Denver Post, and applied that experience to create a mash-up of online community and traditional media that we continue to develop today. More than 30,000 people have created profiles on bakersfield.com, more than 1,000 of those have created personal blogs, and many thousands more have contributed blog or story comments or posted reviews of local businesses.

More recently, Dan led The Californian's development of a Knight Foundation-funded product called Printcasting that is used by people and organizations throughout the world to create digital magazines in minutes. Printcasting has evolved into a new venture, FeedBrewer, which Dan describes as a "one-stop shop for designing, publishing and distributing your content on multiple platforms -- including e-readers, mobile devices, e-mail and printable PDF magazines." The company will also provide other technology, design and strategy services to media companies and non-profits.

I'm excited about the prospects ahead for FeedBrewer, and know that with Dan at the helm, the company's products will deliver a sense of discovery. I'll always treasure our group brainstorming sessions where ideas big and small were batted around, once-vague ideas grew from scratch and new features or products were launched.

Dan is his own boss now, but The Californian will continue to work closely with his team, so stay tuned for new stuff to come that we'll test locally. You can follow Dan's work at FeedBrewer.com, @FeedBrewer or Facebook.com/feedbrewer.

Here's to new opportunities, boys!