It is with a somewhat heavy heart that I revert to the first person this afternoon to let you know that Friday will be my last day editing PRNewser. I’ve accepted a position at a digital agency (think Peggy Olson circa season 4), and while I didn’t expect this career shift to arrive quite so soon, you know what they say: when it rains it pours, and when raindrops keep falling on your head you make lemonade. Or something like that.

I know, I know: It hasn’t even been nine months since I started, which is why this goodbye feels exciting, bittersweet and even slightly premature at the same time. As a dedicated cynic I would generally refrain from making boring generalizations about how fortunate I’ve been to work here, but in this case it’s all true. This has been a dream job for me, but even as I’ve developed a much greater appreciation for the topsy-turvy world of public relations, I’ve also come to realize that I’m not quite cut out to be a flack. I’m really more of a Milford Man…

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Publicity hound.

And now for something slightly different: Your new Editor, Patrick Coffee, would like to take a moment out of his first day on the job to thank Tonya Garcia for her great work over the past two years and to introduce himself to loyal PRNewser readers!

As the newest voice to report on the making of your media meat, I will work with the very talented members of our editorial staff in order to feed that insatiable desire for industry news and juicy, juicy gossip (in addition to hosting a few properly understated cocktail parties).

Some random facts: I may be a Southern boy at heart (Go Gamecocks!), and I have been known to break out the twang from time to time as a parlor trick, but more than a dozen years in the Big Apple have made me a New Yorker through and through. Like you, I live for the big, sloppy mix of high-risk egos and anxious handlers that make up our dizzying media scene.

When I’m not basking in the warm glow of Manhattan’s all-you-can-eat PR buffet, I spend my evenings and weekends in a part of Brooklyn that you’ve probably never heard of: Greenwood Heights, best known as the home of the not-quite-famous Greenwood Cemetery, or New York’s top spot to party with the Civil War dead. I also write about local restaurants and nightlife for New York Magazine and Grub Street New York.

I love nothing more than an eager audience, so feel free to email me with pitches, announcements, complaints, or creative insults. I occasionally pop up on Twitter to post things I like, commit random acts of self-promotion and give answers to questions you didn’t know you needed to ask.

Time to pile on in the comments. Or not. I’m cool either way.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.