City Pages music editor Andrea Swensson, who steered the alt-weekly newspaper's coverage into the online world via the Gimme Noise blog, is moving over to the Current 89.3 FM to largely take on the same role there. Her last CP column runs Jan. 4.

Swensson, 28, will head up a new blog on the station's website focused on local music news as well as reviews, all tied to the "Local Current" stream. She will also sporadically appear on-air to report music news and discuss local events. Prior to this, the Current's on-air staff would often just re-report what Swensson or her rivals/friends at the daily newspapers wrote. So at least now the original reporter will get credit (and I wonder why I never get invited to the Minnesota Public Radio holiday party!).

The move to the Current seemed like a no-brainer, Swensson said, since the staff is made up of music nuts and local-scene boosters like her, and the station continues to prosper. "It seems like the future of media is in this direction, with the overlap between the website, the radio and social media," she said. "One of the things that's especially exciting for me is this is a new position, and I get to help develop the idea of it myself."

Brought up through the pioneering local blog HowWastheShow.com, Swensson joined City Pages in April 2008 and became its most high-profile music editor since early-'00s predecessor Melissa Maerz (now at Entertainment Weekly) – and that was despite the downsizing of the print version of City Pages and the increased involvement of parent company Village Voice Media in her time there.

City Pages editor Kevin Hoffman said, "I am very proud of all the wonderful work Andrea did for City Pages, and excited for her as she embarks on this new adventure."

Swensson was so passionate about leaving Gimme Noise in good hands, Hoffman added, that she helped handpick her successor: They just announced that her replacement will be Reed Fischer, a native of Northfield, Minn., who held the same position at the Village Voice alt-weekly in Fort Lauderdale. Only a passionate music fan would trade Florida weather to cover the Twin Cities scene.

Swensson / Photo by Ben Clark

"There will be even more of us covering the scene now," Swensson proudly boasted.