After 15 years at the helm, Steve Watkins will be stepping down as Federal Times Editor at the end of May. Watkins said he plans to establish his own business communications firm aimed at the federal technology and management marketplace.
"I love where Federal Times is positioned right now in the marketplace, and I love the great team we have here, so it's not easy to step down at this point," he said. "But I have a special opportunity to launch a new enterprise that I couldn't say no to. We've done a lot of great journalism at Federal Times over the years and I'm especially proud of that."
He will continue to play a significant role in Federal Times after he steps down, serving as a contributing editor and continuing his current "Steve's Take" monthly column and undertaking special projects. A replacement has not yet been named, but the search has begun.
Watkins' move caps a highly successful decade-and-a-half run as editor during which he led Federal Times in a transition away from a legacy subscription-based business model and toward a modern business-to-business model focused on the federal management community.
More recently, Watkins repositioned Federal Times to become a robust digital brand with special coverage on federal modernization topics, offering a platform for thought leadership on federal management topics. He rolled out a variety of new products and features to broaden the Federal Times reach and appeal, including the new weekly video franchise "This Week in Federal Times," a smart phone app, e-newsletter products, and a host of new management-themed blogs authored by former federal executives and industry experts. He also created the popular "Ask the Experts" blog series in which readers can have their questions about retirement, personal finance and career development answered by top experts in the field.
"We are saddened by Steve's upcoming departure, but understand it's an opportunity that he has wanted to do for a long time," said David Smith, general manager and vice president of the Network Solutions division of Gannett Government Media. "With this year being the 50th anniversary of Federal Times, it's a proper time for us to reflect on all that Steve has accomplished in his stellar stewardship of the brand. I've been honored and fortunate to work with Steve in establishing a solid foundation for Federal Times for the years ahead. I am especially pleased that Steve will continue to have a relationship with Federal Times. So this really isn't a goodbye but a transition. I look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role as contributing editor for Federal Times."
During Watkin's tenure, Federal Times won three dozen national and regional peer-reviewed awards for journalism excellence, mostly for government coverage, investigative journalism, and other news-reporting categories. In addition, Federal Times has been consistently ranked No. 1 or No. 2 nationally as the "Top Federal Publication Read" since federal market research studies were first conducted in 2011 by Market Connections Inc.
