Senior Editor for Video Andy Pergam will leave The Washington Post to “help The McClatchy Company develop its digital video strategy,” a memo from Post Executive Editor Marty Baron and Managing Editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz tell staffers in an email. Pergam helped launch PostTV, the company’s video initiative, which began a rethink in late 2013, moving from shows to “easily digestible segments.”
Pergam will also work on his Spark Camp project, Baron and Garcia-Ruiz say in their memo.
Full thing:
We are sorry to announce that Andy Pergam is leaving us to help The McClatchy Company develop its digital video strategy and to continue to develop his successful startup project, Spark Camp.
We will be forever grateful to Andy for the strong work he has done over the past three years building our newsroom video operation, culminating with the successful launch of Post TV last summer. Andy has unparalleled knowledge of video in the digital space and his expertise was invaluable as we created Post TV under an extremely tight deadline. Andy hired a very talented staff and directed the installation of a beautiful studio and contributed to the launch of a redesigned video web site.
Most importantly, Andy has been a terrific colleague, working to better integrate video into the culture of our newsroom.
Under Andy’s leadership, the team produced memorable live coverage of the 2012 election cycle, the first Google TV app and Chromecast integration for news, and excellent video journalism on a range of topics from high school football to the war in Afghanistan. The staff was honored in 2013 with the Edward R. Murrow Award for overall excellence and a local Emmy for station excellence, the first time a non-TV station has won the award.
His Spark Camp project is a nonprofit that Andy co-founded that “engineers productive collisions of talented people to tackle provocative questions, develop meaningful relationships and lead ideas into action.” Andy came to us from American University, where he was editorial director of J-Lab. His last day will be March 21.
Marty Emilio
Poynter is helping with the training for McClatchy’s video initiative.
