HubSpot has hired Dan Lyons, previously the editor-in-chief of ReadWrite and before that a Newsweek columnist, to join its inbound marketing team. HubSpot’s Mike Volpe explains a bit more about the hire in a blog post this morning:
At HubSpot, we posted 937 blog entries and published 157 ebooks and offers in 2012 alone. But it’s not just about quantity; it’s also about quality. We want HubSpot to be the absolute best resource for all marketing professionals in the world. Hiring Dan, a world class journalist (who is also darn funny), is another step along that path. And for the same reason, Dan knows the future for someone like him is in working at a company that values inbound marketing.
Volpe’s a bit vague about what Lyons’ role will be exactly, but my understanding is that HubSpot has been hiring out a new internal content team to dramatically ramp up its production of everything from blog posts to white papers to e-books. My guess is Lyons will be involved and/or head up that effort.
It’s easy to see why HubSpot would want to bring on editorial talent like this. Lyons is a very sharp writer and also the man behind the popular Fake Steve Jobs blog. That HubSpot would want this kind of independent-minded creativity along side its marketing acumen makes sense.
But why did Lyons want the job? Mostly because he was sick of telecommuting and traveling all the time to manage ReadWrite. This isn’t the first journalist-turned-inbound-marketer transition, and it won’t be the last we see. Reporters go over to PR quite often, and arguably content marketing is a better skill match than traditional PR for them.
What remains to be seen is what HubSpot does with its internal content goliath. Will it all be around inbound marketing? Or will they offer creative services out to customers for a fee? If you have tips on that let me know: walter@bostinno.
