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.
Updated (4:02 p.m.) It's time to fire up the Facebook speculation machine with news that the social network has hired Bloomberg's former social media director Dan Fletcher to be its managing editor. Why on Earth does Facebook need a managing editor, you ask? Who knows. Both Fletcher and Facebook confirmed the move to Business Insider's Kevin Lincoln but neither would offer any details about what Fletcher, an alum of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, would actually be doing at the social networking giant. That said, having written the recent TIME cover story about Facebook and privacy as well as having built newsfeed.time.com, Fletcher is no stranger the ins and outs of the social network.
This "managing editor" job title sounds particularly newsy for a job at Facebook, but it's not the first time the company has gone after a J-school graduate. A couple of years ago, Facebook hired Vadim Lavrusik, an alum of Columbia's J-school, to help other journalists better use Facebook. His title, "Journalist Program Manager," hardly suggested an-house editorial role. Maybe Lincoln's hiring has something to do with Facebook recently snatching up "facebook-newsroom" URLs? Or maybe it has something to do with the emphasis on story-telling that comes with the full roll-out of the Timeline profile format? We really don't know. Regardless, it looks like BuzzFeed will be getting some competition in the social news game.
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.
