We’re proud to announce that Publish2 has acquired Wired Journalists.

In January 2008, Howard Owens, Zac Echola, and myself, Ryan Sholin, launched a social network with self-motivated, eager-to-learn reporters, editors, executives, students and faculty in mind.

Wired Journalists was born with the mission of connecting the knowledgeable, expert innovators in online news with journalists of all stripes hoping to learn something new about their evolving craft.

At Publish2, that mission of connecting journalists based on common goals and interests will continue and — we hope — grow exponentially as the Wired Journalists network becomes a space for collaboration on real-world reporting as well as conversations about craft.

When I joined Publish2 earlier this year, Scott Karp and I started sketching out what Wired Journalists might look like if it had the funding, attention, and staff that we’d always wanted.

Out of those conversations came a rock-solid proposal to give Wired Journalists a new home under the Publish2 banner, where I could personally devote time to it as a part of my role at Publish2.

What’s going to happen to WiredJournalists.com?

It’s going to live on, powered by Ning, with some noticeable changes.  For starters, we’re going to immediately implement Publish2′s editorial standards for membership and moderate new registrations.  From here on in, all new members at Wired Journalists will be journalists.

You’ll also notice some Publish2-powered streams of links start flowing through the homepage and other sections of Wired Journalists.  The “Feedstream,” a raw aggregation of RSS feeds, has been replaced with a recommended reading list of links about Media & Journalism from Publish2.  Over the next few weeks, we’ll invite some of the sharpest eyes in the media blogosphere to join a Publish2 Newsgroup to power the News page at Wired Journalists.  Plus, you’ll find links to the best media jobs, tutorials, and tools for journalists getting their hands dirty with video, audio, data, code, and more.

Who’s going to manage the site?

Howard Owens and Zac Echola are staying on as Editors-At-Large, which means they’ll be part of the team flagging content to feature, moderating submissions, and recommending links, among other editorial tasks.

As a part of my role at Publish2, I’ll be doing plenty of day-to-day community management with a lot of help from colleagues like Publish2 Senior Editor Josh Korr, CEO Scott Karp, and soon, up-and-coming online journalist Greg Linch, who joins Publish2 in September.

But, as always, we’ll be asking for help from the 3,000-plus members of the Wired Journalists network, to submit interesting blog posts, news stories, photos, videos, examples of your own work, and stories of your own success.

A personal thank you…

…to those of you who have made Wired Journalists a community built on collaboration and communication among journalists of all skill levels, crafts, organizations, and ideas.  You’ve made this network strong, and we’re looking forward to working with you to make it stronger.