Kastrenakes named new editor of Circuit Breaker

The Verge editor in chief Nilay Patel sent out the following announcement on Monday:

Hey all — here’s another email I’m writing after a staff meeting announcement so I can tweet the news. (Except this time I’m a week late, so forgive me.)

But! I am very pleased to announce that Jake Kastrenakes will be the new editor of Circuit Breaker, focused on deepening our coverage of gadgets and growing our audience on that channel. Jake started with us five years ago as an intern, and he’s been an integral part of our tech news operation ever since. I’m very excited to see him bring that focus and creativity to Circuit Breaker across text and video. He’ll be working with Ashley, Chaim, Micah, Paul, Alix, Sarah, Becca, and everyone else across The Verge who makes Circuit Breaker as fun and lively as it is every day.

And Circuit Breaker is ready to grow. CB was our first Facebook-first experiment in more narrowly targeting audiences, and it’s been a success since it launched just over a year ago, with millions of organically shared video views every week. New CB formats like DIY Gadgets, Expert explainers, and video editorials are all outperforming commodity slideshows, and there are more to come.

I also want to congratulate Paul Miller for launching Circuit Breaker and bringing it this far — you’ve all heard me say that new things are hard, and Paul has been instrumental in creating the voice and energy of Circuit Breaker. We want more of that more often, so Paul’s going to spend more of his time writing and making videos, which I’m personally very excited about.

Congrats Jake! Go Circuit Breaker! If you’re reading this on Twitter, remember that CB shirts are available at store.theverge.com :)

Nilay