My first post-college gig was as an intern at the Philadelphia City Paper. Later I would spend seven years at the Forward.

So you’ll understand why I got a kick out of the news that CP’s new editor is… Lilian Swanson, the former managing editor of the Forward.

Mazal Tov!

Check out this nugget from her interview for the CP job:

This career in journalism has been a fascinating journey from typewriters to Twitter. My experience cuts across large metros, weekly papers and the wire services, but this is my first alt-weekly.

In my interview, I was asked why I thought I could make the transition. My answer: I was a Presbyterian managing editor for four years at the Jewish Daily Forward. Good questions are the soft breezes that give fresh life to every brand of journalism: Why is this important? Do we need to explain this better? Why would our readers care?

Those questions are top of mind as I begin.

Ami Eden is JTA’s CEO and editor in chief, responsible for overseeing all aspects of the agency’s operations, including editorial, business, marketing and fundraising. Before joining JTA in the summer of 2007, he served as executive editor of the Forward newspaper and the founding editor of the Jewish Daily Forward Web site. He also worked as an editor of the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia.