Inside the Department of Homeland Security blog

The man behind this government blog explains how it started, how it works and where it’s going

Imagine your CEO approaches you—the communicator—and says, “I want to blog. Let’s make it happen.”

Michael Chertoff, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, did exactly that, according to department spokesperson Jeff Ostermayer.

“[The Leadership Journal blog] is an idea that came directly from the secretary himself,” Ostermayer explained. “He wanted to start a dialogue with the American people on national security and homeland security issues, and create a forum to share their ideas with the department and the leadership of the department.”

Ostermayer said the idea for Leadership Journal originated only a few weeks before it went live.

“It all went pretty quickly,” he noted.

The department launched the Leadership Journal blog on Sept. 12 with a post from Chertoff.

Ragan.com spoke with Ostermayer, who is also the blog’s facilitator, about what it takes to run an executive blog.

Approvals prove no problem