Newly Appointed Taylor Swift Expert Is a Guy Named Bryan

In September, the U.S. media company Gannett posted a full-time job listing for a Taylor Swift reporter. What ensued were a lot of takes about the validity of fangirl-dom, the dire state of media in general, and the sound of a thousand Swiftie TikTokers opening their laptop to bang out a cover letter. Today, Gannett and its subsidiary USA Today and The Tennesseean announced their hire: a guy named Bryan.

Bryan West, a 35-year-old journalist and avowed Swiftie from Arizona got the gig. Competition was stiff! Gannett’s VP of local news, Michael Anastasi, told Variety that West beat out almost a thousand applicants, including “veteran hard-news reporters” and “at least one very established White House reporter,” as well as some Swiftie influencers and a bunch of die-hard and semi-delusional fans.

Watching West’s application video where he lists out (Taylor angel number) 13 reasons why he’d be great for the job, it does seem like Gannett hired the right guy. Sure, he can boast a number of prestigious journalism awards like a duPont-Columbia award in investigative journalism and two Emmys. And he does really like Taylor (“Our ears touched and I thought for a second, I could be straight” he said about meeting the singer once). But more impressively, and by that I mean more relevant to his new job is that he, according to Variety, believes that Taylor is sending out clues to fans via her fingernails. That’s the sort of top-tier tin foil hat type of journalism I expect from the holder of this prestigious position.

Admittedly, and at the risk of coming across as a gender essentialist (kidding, kidding), it is a little bit of a bummer that a woman wasn’t hired for this position. Swift’s record-breaking appeal amongst young and teen girls as well as her lyrics’ focus on young womanhood is as interesting a subject to delve into as which album she might release next (based on her fingernails, of course). Hopefully West can deliver insight into that gender-specific pandemonium as well as live up to the deranged expectations this fan base is bound to set up for him.

West told Variety that he’ll be at the CMA Awards this week as his first assignment for the job. Next, I’d love to read his take on the state of Israel Twitter account asking Taylor to help find missing hostages. Again, just kidding…sort of. But I do hope that his coverage goes beyond fan theories and her songwriting to dissect the global craze around this woman. Because I’d love some insight!