Rob Bluey is a journalist and blogger who leads The Heritage Foundation’s investigative reporting unit. It’s his job to develop stories and use technology to communicate the power of policy ideas.
Combining a background in journalism with a passion for digital media, Bluey’s goal is to secure Heritage’s position as the go-to think tank for hard-hitting stories spotlighting conservative solutions to the nation’s thorniest challenges.
As director of Heritage’s Center for Media and Public Policy, Bluey also focuses on promoting investigative journalism and government transparency. He is instrumental in the think tank’s Computer-Assisted Investigative Reporting boot camp, a daylong seminar held at the National Press Club.
Following five years as a reporter and editor in Washington, Bluey joined Heritage in 2007 as liaison to conservative bloggers and host of the Bloggers Briefing, a weekly meeting he co-founded in 2006. Within a year, he was named editor-in-chief of Heritage.org and oversaw creation of the think tank’s rapid-response policy blog, The Foundry, and daily e-newsletter, Morning Bell.
Bluey shifted roles in 2009 to develop and integrate Heritage’s online strategy, managing the organization’s outreach through social media, e-mail marketing and online issue advocacy campaigns. Under his direction, Heritage’s online footprint grew significantly. The organization increased its social networking presence, expanded its e-newsletter offerings and redesigned Heritage.org.
Bluey continues to host the Bloggers Briefing, described by The Washington Times as a place for conservative bloggers “to share information and ideas.” He has arranged guest appearances by scores of newsmakers and political insiders – including congressmen, authors and scholars – for a mix of discussion and debate with bloggers, online journalists and digital strategists.
Bluey serves on the board of visitors for the Institute for Political Journalism and frequently speaks about journalism, blogging and online strategy. Campaigns & Elections magazine named him a “Rising Star” in 2008. Politico placed Bluey among Washington’s “Top 50 Politicos.”
“He’s an online entrepreneurial genius,” Terry Jeffery, Cybercast News Service editor in chief, toldPolitics magazine. “He’s taught people how to bypass the establishment media, and that’s been so valuable to the conservative movement.”
In 2007, Bluey hosted Heritage’s first Modern Media Strategies Workshop. He was among a select group of bloggers invited to the White House in 2006 to witness President George W. Bush’s signing of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, legislation that won passage thanks to a public education effort by bloggers. He served as a coordinator for the Open House Project, an effort to increase government transparency in Congress.
Before joining Heritage, Bluey was editor of HumanEvents.com for more than a year transforming it into a popular destination for conservative journalism. He was assistant editor there for a year and also served as managing editor of the venerable print edition, Human Events.
As a reporter for Cybercast News Service, Bluey was the first journalist to challenge the authenticity of documents used by CBS News to question President Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard. He covered the Republican and Democratic conventions in 2004 and reported on several high-profile Supreme Court cases.
Bluey grew up in upstate New York. He graduated from Ithaca College, and was editor of its award-winning newspaper, The Ithacan. While in high school, Bluey got his first newspaper job at the Clinton (N.Y.) Courier. In college, he worked for the digital media team of the Los Angeles Times. He was awarded a Dow Jones Newspaper Fund internship at the Traverse City (Mich.) Record-Eagle and a New York Press Association internship at the Clinton Courier.
After college, Bluey completed a yearlong fellowship at the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va. He remains closely involved with his alma mater, serving on Ithaca’s Alumni Association Advisory Board of Directors.
He currently resides in Northern Virginia with his wife and son.
Follow him on Twitter: @RobertBluey