Capitol Hill political tabloid The Hill announced that it will soon feature an opinion section. That new section, which will offer an array of viewpoints from different voices in politics, will be developed over the next several months.
In creating the new section, The Hill has now hired Jim Roberts, former executive editor and chief content officer of digital media website Mashable, to serve as consulting editor.
Prior to his tenure at Mashable, where he worked for three years and was responsible for overseeing editorial strategy and managing that site’s editorial team, Roberts was executive editor of Reuters Digital. He was previously an assistant managing editor at The New York Times and was with that publication for more than 26 years.
Roberts will now report to The Hill’s editor-in-chief, Bob Cusack.
The Hill, which began as a newspaper in 1994, boasts the largest circulation of any Washington, D.C. publication.

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