DorobekInsider

As some of you know, last year, I made the decision to leave my post as anchor of the afternoon drive program on DC’s Federal News Radio. And I made that decision, in part, because I was having a child and I wanted to be a father.

Nicholas has just passed 9-months. And it has been an amazing nine months. There are challenges, mind you — many of us are used to fixing problems, and with a child, you quickly learn that it isn’t always possible to fix those issues.

When I left the afternoon show, I promised that I wasn’t going to disappear. And I haven’t. But I’m really excited about what I’m doing now.

As you know, my mission is summed up in six word: Helping government do its job better. And I work to do that… through this blog, through audio and video content… through events… and I now am going to be working with GovLoop. I have been doing these Friday weekly reviews for several months now. And we will continue to focus on the issue of the week on Fridays. But there will be more: the DorobekINSIDER program will also be here each weekday.

Our goal is to post by noon ET — you can stream us at lunch, so while you’re feeding your body, you can also have some food for thought.

The program will be similar to my former radio show: A mix of news and newsmakers, innovators, thought leaders, books… and even some off the wall kind of stories. We will focus on leadership, technology, acquisition, policy, pay and benefits and your career. Yes, we’ll occasionally have somebody who just blows your socks off… but we’ll also have those “boring but important” stories — our vegetables that are so important to our thought diet. But we’ll also have some fun. (Yes, that too!)

One of my own goals is to challenge myself to find new ways of reporting and telling stories… those stories that help you do your job better. And I think GovLoop is the perfect partner in that quest.

While the GovLoop Insights DorobekINSIDER program will be similar to my former program, there will be several significant differences. First, we aren’t slaves to a clock. If a conversation is going really well, we’re going to keep going. There is no need to hit news at the top of the hour… or weather and traffic, for that matter.

But the most significant difference is GovLoop. We are working to integrate DorobekINSIDER content into GovLoop in a number of ways. The most significant: We are hoping to crowdsource the production of a radio program. We are going to be as transparent as possible — and what we are working on (and why)… about the questions we plan to ask. And we hope that you will be involved. Is there an issue that we should cover? Are there questions we should ask? Is there a challenge you are facing?

We are also working to integrate content across GovLoop’s communities. If we do an interview with somebody, we hope you will offer your thoughts, insights and analysis to the discussion.

If you have ideas about how we can do that, let us know. To put it simply: We don’t have all the answers. And we do believe that all of us are smarter then each of us individually.

We will also be using some of the awesome GovLoop content as fodder for this program — so keep up the good work.

Many things will not change. This is journalism — and it will continue to be. There are always questions about why somebody covered something in a certain way. If you have those questions, ask us. We actually love those questions.

Here is how this will work, as of right now. The full show will be posted on DorobekINSIDER.com each day at about noon ET. And the full show will be available on iTunes… or stream it using apps like Stitcher, where you can stream audio… or even listen on SoundCloud — yes, there is an app for that… and a mobile version.

We will also post each interview individually on DorobekINSIDER — along with the relevant links where you can get more information… and to the community on GovLoop where the discussion is happening. And there will be highlights of those interviews in the community sections. It sounds more complex then it is.

And, of course, we’ll be on all the platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Google+. Yes, even LinkedIN. Find those links here.

The team

I have an awesome team working with me on the program. Emily Jarvis is the producer of the program. Emily was my producer for my WFED program. She is one of those young people who educates me. She is smart and passionate — and always eager to learn. She can be reached at ejarvis@dorobekinsider.com.

And Stephen Peteritas, who has been producing the Friday Issue of the Week program, is still part of the team. He is working to integrate content throughout GovLoop. Stephen can be reached at stephen@govloop.com.

Finally, a few words of thanks… to Scott Burns, the CEO of GovLoop’s parent company, GovDelivery… to Steve Ressler, the founder of GovLoop… and to Doug Mashkuri, GovLoop’s director of business development. I have known each of them for years. I had many options about my next steps — and I selected GovLoop because of their vision for this platform… and the fact that they share my passion about those six words: Help the government do its job better. I’m thrilled to be working with them.

I’m so excited about this. I often tell people that I am the luckiest person on the planet. I love what I do every day. I get to help smart people tackle big challenges.

And I think these are remarkable times. Yes, in some ways they are very difficult times — and you know that. But they are also amazing times. And you can do amazing things.

Are we ready? Let’s do it.

And we’ll see you online… DorobekINSIDER.com.