Glen Johnson, Boston Globe Editor, Moves To Secretary Of State Kerry's Office

Boston Globe Politics Editor Glen Johnson announced Thursday that he is leaving the paper to work for incoming Secretary of State John Kerry.

Kerry was confirmed Tuesday and Johnson starts his new communications job Monday.

Here is part of the email he sent out announcing the job change:

After 27 years as a news reporter, I have decided to step away from daily journalism to serve Senator John Kerry as he embarks tomorrow on his new duties as secretary of state.

I will have the honor of working in Washington on the senior staff at the State Department, helping the secretary-designate communicate his foreign policy vision and priorities to both international and domestic audiences.

My duties will include traveling with the secretary and assisting him as he represents President Obama and the administration abroad and at home. It will be reminiscent of our travels from 2001 until 2003, as the senator laid the groundwork for his 2004 presidential campaign and I tagged along for The Boston Globe.

It is a humbling opportunity, especially in these turbulent times, but one that I embrace with relish.

Up to this point in my life, I have never wanted to be anything other than a reporter, to have a front seat on history and write its proverbial first draft.

That passion sustained me when I started as a government meeting stringer for The Lowell Sun, and worked my first full-time job at the fabled City News Bureau of Chicago while managing a Baskin-Robbins franchise to cover my lodging.

It carried on through stints at The Salem Evening News, the Sun as a full-timer, through a pair of tenures at both The Associated Press and the Globe, and across five presidential campaigns.

The people I have met at each workplace or campaign bus have been honest, hard-working, and public servants in their own right. I'm going to miss being one of them.