My New Job: VP of Communications for The FP Group. Boom!

On Friday October 10 it will be my last day at Washingtonian magazine. It will also be three years to the day since I joined the staff as Editor-at-Large. On October 20 I begin a new chapter as Vice President of Communications for the FP Group. I'm eager for a new challenge. As I depart Washingtonian this week I'm thrilled about what's ahead but know I will miss good friends and the laughs we had and some memorable experiences, especially producing the monthly photo feature "Behind The Scenes." I'm so proud of that series. I'm also grateful for the support from publisher Cathy Merrill Williams. Washingtonian has an innovative new editor, Michael Schaffer, and many years of great issues in its future. 

Along with my role, FP CEO and Editor David Rothkopf announced two other new hires:  Gopal Ratnam and David Francis. 

Here's the full announcement:

NEWS RELEASE     Media Contact:   Maria Ory, Press Director [email protected] 202-728-7318

FP Group Announces New Hires: Carol Joynt to Be New VP Communications, Two New Reporters Join Edit Team   October 6, 2014 — Washington, DC — David Rothkopf, CEO and Editor of The FP Group, a division of Graham Holdings Company has announced three new additions to the staff of the company that publishes Foreign Policy magazine, ForeignPolicy.com and produces FP Events. These new hires come as the FP Group has passed a number of important milestones including more than doubling its paid subscriber base since the launch of its paywall a year ago, reaching 1 million registered users, over 800,000 Facebook followers and over 500,000 Twitter followers. The total aggregate audience reached by all FP platforms including the website, magazine, newsletters and social media now exceeds 6 million a month worldwide.   “These new hires are part of the continued strengthening of our team and the deepening of our capabilities as an organization,” said Rothkopf, “And we are delighted to have them join our already strong roster of top journalists and business professionals.”   Carol Ross Joynt joins FP as Vice President of Communications. She was at Washingtonian magazine as editor-at-large for the last three years. Her extensive career is principally in broadcast journalism. Carol has been a producer for all the major networks and cable channels, in New York and Washington, and worked closely with Ted Koppel, Walter Cronkite, Charlie Rose and Larry King as a writer and producer on their nightly broadcasts. She started her career in print, with the wire services and then as a reporter for Time magazine in its New York bureau. She also directed films for the National Gallery of Art.   Carol won the national Emmy Award for “Best Interview” for a Charlie Rose prison interview with Charles Manson at St. Quentin. Her memoir, “Innocent Spouse,” tells the story of the dozen years she spent away from journalism, owning Nathans, a Georgetown saloon. It was published by Crown and featured in Vogue magazine and on the Today show. Follow Carol on Twitter @caroljoynt   Two reporters join FP's news team. They include:    Gopal Ratnam, who is coming over from Bloomberg News and will cover the White House with a focus on the way the Obama administration crafts and carries out its national security policies. Gopal, who had been Bloomberg's Pentagon correspondent, has covered a wide variety of subjects in Washington over the last 15 years, including child-labor law violations, the international arms trade, the politics of weapons purchases, and the war in Afghanistan. Follow him @g_ratnam.   David Francis joins FP to guide the evolution of Situation Report, FP's morning email that combines sharp analysis of the key national security and foreign policy issues of the day with links to must-read articles from the U.S. and around the world. David, an award-winning international journalist whose work has appeared in Slate, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Financial Times Deutschland, will oversee The Cable, FP’s breaking news blog, which will provide FP's analysis of key events in the DC and US foreign policy communities as they happen. Follow him @davidcfrancis