David Silverberg

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David Silverberg is a Washington DC-based writer and editor. He is the founding editor of the magazines HSToday[1], Homeland Defense Journal and Military Information Technology and author of the book Congress for Dummies. He was born on Jan. 2, 1953 in Queens, New York. He currently resides with his wife, June Fletcher, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and author of the book House Poor, in Virginia, outside Washington, DC. They have one son, Adam Silverberg.

Contents 1 HSToday 2 Magazines and newspapers 3 Silverberg Independent Media 4 Defense Work

[edit] HSToday

First published in May 2004, by 2007 HSToday had emerged as the leading monthly magazine on homeland security policy. In 2004, the magazine, published by KMD Media LLC, an independent publishing company based in McLean, Va., received two awards for editorial excellence from the American Society of Business Publication Editors.

Silverberg supervised all editorial aspects of the publication, including determining its departments and features, its editorial thrust and the nature of its coverage.

Beyond simply a magazine about homeland security, HSToday pursued a special role in helping define homeland security as a discipline and in cementing government officials with homeland security responsibilities into a community with common concerns and issues.

At the time of its inception there was widespread confusion among US officials at the federal, state and local levels regarding the exact nature of "homeland security" and their relationship with the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, DC. Furthermore, the notion of "homeland security" itself remained vague and amorphous. It was in this environment that HSToday began its work defining the discipline and forging the community.

HSToday was launched in a very competitive environment with the publications GSN (Government Security News), Homeland Defense Journal and Homeland Protection Professional, its primary competitors. Additionally, publications such as Aviation Week & Space Technology, Defense News and Government Executive were publishing homeland security supplements and special sections.

However, by 2007, HSToday had emerged as the only reliably published magazine in the field with a circulation audited and certified by BPA, the magazine publishing circulation authority, and it was widely regarded as an authoritative source of information, analysis and insight for officials with homeland security responsibiities at all levels of government.

[edit] Magazines and newspapers

In 2003 Silverberg turned an online PDF e-newsletter into the monthly magazine Homeland Defense Journal and developed its supporting organization and website.

From 1999 to 2002 Silverberg served as managing editor of The Hill[2], a weekly newspaper covering Congress. As Managing Editor Silverberg was responsible for all internal editorial processes, including copy flow and production as well as managing news coverage and the editorial staff.

Silverberg overhauled the copy flow system to bring it up to professional levels, improved the look of the newspaper, upgraded the newspaper's electronic infrastructure, selecting a new e-mail host and overseeing a competition to select a new Internet service provider. He overhauled The Hill website, bringing it up to a professional level and held a competition to select the newspaper’s first Webmaster. In 2002, the site was nominated for a Webby Award. The Website began carrying advertising and provided a variety of benefits to the newspaper including aiding syndication, bringing new advertisers to the paper, giving the paper’s content international reach and opening up channels of communication with trade associations and advocacy organizations. He also created and helped host live, online Web chats with political personalities, authors and political advocates.

As part of this effort Silverberg created a weekly electronic newsletter, The Hill E-News. This included a feature called "Omens & Portents," consisting of short predictions of congressional and political developments generated by the reporting staff. From an initial subscription list of fewer than 1,000, the E-News steadily gained high quality subscribers, reaching a circulation of over 5,500 by November 2002.

While at The Hill, Silverberg wrote the book Congress for Dummies as a simple and accessible guide to the United States Congress. It was published by Wiley Publishing Inc. in October 2002.

Silverberg began working with The Hill by writing a biweekly column "Pentagon Perspective" in 1995, and in February 1999 started a second biweekly column, "InfoTech," on high-tech politics. In Feb. 2000, he launched a third on globalization called “One World Watch.” Each column ran monthly on alternating weeks.

[edit] Silverberg Independent Media

In 1997 Silverberg founded his own media company, Silverberg Independent Media, which provided editorial services to a variety of clients. For Kerrigan Media International, Silverberg conceived, launched and edited the magazine Military Information Technology[3]. It started as a quarterly magazine, and is now published ten times a year. He also launched the quarterly Missiles & Munitions, and served as editor of an existing publication, Military Training Technology. In all the publications, Silverberg created a stable of writers, oversaw design, layout and art, reformed and improved copy flow and established a stable and functioning editorial infrastructure.

In 1998 Silverberg started his own quarterly publication, The Journal of Information Policy on the politics and policies of the Internet and information-related subjects. In 1999 it was sold to Fed Services Publications, which went bankrupt the same year.

Also in 1998, Silverberg founded the Information Technology Communicators Association (ITCA) of IT-related journalists and communications professionals in the Washington area. ITCA staged two Internet-related tradeshows called "Webfest" in 1999 and 2000, the second one taking place at the National Press Club. Some 40 Web-related exhibitors drew a crowd of approximately 700 attendees. However, with the downturn in the Internet boom, ITCA disbanded in 2001.

[edit] Defense Work

From 1993 to 1997 Silverberg served as Editor-at-Large for Armed Forcees Journal International[4], a monthly magazine of military affairs first founded in 1863.

During this time, Silverberg published the article "Global Trends in Military Production and Conversion" in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science."

Prior to that, Silverberg was a reporter for Defense News[5] the leading weekly newspaper covering the defense industry from 1986 to 1993. Silverberg's beat covered the international defense trade, foreign military sales, international relations, technology transfer and regulation, industrial base issues and related issues.

During his career, Silverberg has also made numerous media appearances and appeared on such broadcast programs as "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer," "All Things Considered," C-SPAN’s "Washington Journal", and CNN. He also produced broadcast reports for radio station WAMU-FM and served as a visiting expert on homeland security for cable NewsChannel 8 in the Washington, DC-area.