Melissa Jordan has jumped from the post of senior editor for recruiting and training at the Mercury News to BART’s senior Web producer. She tells Poynter Online (link to Q&A) that she wanted to try something new. Jordan, who was with AP before the Merc, says she’s excited about her new job. Asked by Poynter’s Joe Grimm to name something that surprised her about her new job, she replied:

How great a fit it is for me with the public service mission of transit. I think most people go into journalism because they want to do good in society, make the world a better place — which you do sort of indirectly, on good days, when a story or investigation or something gets results. 

In a public-sector setting like transit, you are helping people get around to their jobs and schools and doctors’ appointments and day care and entertainment every day, and there’s a really direct, rewarding feeling from providing that service to them.

(Photo credit: Poynter Institute)