November 1, 2001

About the Editor

I am currently the communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party, and have been since Oct. 29, 2007. I love this job - it gives me the opportunity to mesh three things that I love: journalism, blogging and politics.

For the Tennessee GOP I do traditional media relations work - press releases and media appearances - and also am building an extensive online communications strategy as part of the overall campaign to win a majority in both houses of the state legislature this year. Politically, I'm a libertarian conservative and a foreign policy/defense hawk - a Reaganite, essentially.

I also continue to do media relations work for a select group of other clients and consult with large corporations on the use of blogs as public relations tools via Mesh Media Strategies, which I began in 2006.

With my extensive and widely varied experience in journalism, online media, and media relations, I have a deep understanding of media, media relations and the dynamics of the interactive web and how to leverage it for public relations and media impact.

I created and author one of the most influential political blogs focused on Tennessee politics, government and public policy, BillHobbs.com, which I launched in November 2001.

I was a media relations specialist and blogging coach at Belmont University, where I worked from January 2003 through April 2006, doing a variety of traditional media relations work and spurring the University's efforts to connect with the world via blogs.

While at Belmont I revamped the University's approach to media relations, using more targeted methods that lead to a doubling of the university's press coverage, and implemented a blog-based public relations campaign including assisting faculty members in setting up and publishing blogs that raised the University's profile online. I coached the director of the Center of Entrepreneurship, Dr. Jeff Cornwall, on the creation and publication of his blog, The Entrepreneurial Mind, which raised the profile of the University's new Entrepreneurship program, helping make it the fastest-growing major on campus in its first three years in existence.

Also while at Belmont I worked with Robert Cox of the Media Bloggers Association to organized the BlogNashville conference, which brought 250-300 bloggers from around the country to Nashville in May 2005 for a three-day conference focused on blogging and journalism, training bloggers in computer-assisted research and reporting, and other facets of the new grassroots interactive journalism. I am a founding board member of the Media Bloggers Association.

I often speak to business and professional groups about the interaction of weblogs, public relations and media.

Before working at Belmont, I worked in journalism in a multi-faceted career that included full-time, part-time and freelance work for newspapers and magazines, covering a wide variety of stories from the business beat to country music to health care. I have written news or commentary for a variety of general-interest and niche newspapers, magazines and online publications, worked as a press secretary for a mayoral candidate, edited three business books, and helped launch an online news database company

Since September 2003 I have done the following: extensive editing work on three business books; freelance articles for business publications and newspapers; research, writing and weblog consulting for corporate clients, served as a contributing editor of Corante.com; done policy research and op-ed writing for the now-defunct Tennessee Institute for Public Policy, a conservative/libertarian think tank focused on economic issues; written a weekly column for Nashville City Paper on business, public policy and economic issues and made numerous radio and television appearances in connection with the column; written business analysis and commentary pieces for In Review, a now-defunct Nashville weekly newspaper; written extensively for Business Nashville magazine, covering topics ranging from health care, transportation and economic development to technology, ecommerce, real estate and the music industry; written and served as assistant editor for a monthly entertainment magazine ; worked as a regional general assignments reporter for The Tennessean; served as a press assistant for a mayoral candidate in the 1999 Nashville mayoral campaign; authored two comprehensive guides to Nashville for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce; and been a contributing writer to two country music-related reference books.

I helped launch NetContent Inc., which provides electronic news feeds for business and organization web sites, and research tools and information services to businesses and consumers.

I was a staff writer for the Nashville Business Journal in the early 1990s, writing about real estate, transportation and economic development.

Earlier in my career I was a reported for the Leaf-Chronicle in Clarksville, Tennessee, and before that the Avalanche-Journal in Lubbock, Texas.

I was born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pa., and attended K-12 public schools on an accelerated college-prep track. I studied American history and political science for three years at Lipscomb University in Nashville, and served as a legislative aide during the 1985 session of the Tennessee General Assembly. I transferred to Abilene Christian University in Texas in the fall of 1985, where I was an edition editor of twice-a-week student newspaper The Optimist, the student newspaper, and completed my B.A. degree in mass communication, emphasis in print journalism, in 1987.

I live in the suburbs of Nashville. My wife is the most beautiful woman on earth and my children are the smartest and best-looking.

You may contact me by email at bill@billhobbs.com