CQ Roll Call has handpicked John Cranford to be the new editor of CQ Weekly, a spot left vacant by Fred Barbash, who recently left for Reuters. Cranford’s previous role there was as a story consultant and line editor. He first came to CQ in 1984.

“I’ve been around the CQ newsroom since the days of the Daily Monitor and when the only color in the Weekly was CQ Green, so I’m excited to take the magazine helm,” Cranford told FishbowlDC.  “I’ve actually done this before, in 2003-2004, and I guess I can’t resist coming back.”

Cranford’s first day back was Monday.

Editorial Director Mike Mills announced the news in a recent memo. Also: See Cranford on his hog…

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Reuters has hired Fred Barbash away from CQ Roll Call to be the Domestic Policy Editor. He comes to Reuters from CQ Roll Call where he was Managing Editor of CQ Weekly for two years.

Barbash has certainly made the rounds in this town. He has worked at WaPo, Politico, CQ Roll Call, the Medill School of Journalism and now Reuters.

Congratulations to Barbash!

By the way, CQ Roll Call will be looking to replace him…

See the respective memos after the jump…

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This week’s CQ Weekly cover story by Richard E. Cohen and the publication’s editor Fred Barbash examines how Newt’s record will fare under a harsh campaign spotlight. They address important questions like the following:

“If he was that great as Speaker, why did his colleagues try to oust him? Why did Americans give him approval ratings in the 30 percent range during his time in office? And why do so many politicians and political scientists, when asked when politics got so poisonous, mention Gingrich?”

Also in the issue: CQ‘s John Donnelly reports on how deep cuts in spending would force tough choices on the Pentagon but leave the U.S. military with some of its biggest budgets ever; CQ‘s John Reichard reports on how President Obama‘s new pick to head the Center for Medicare and Medicaid, Mairlyn Tavenner, may have a gentler Senate ride than her predecessor.

Look for the stories online later in the week.

Roll Call-CQ Editorial Director Mike Mills lays out the new landscape for the publication in an e-mail to staff.

It’s lengthy, so here’s the summary:

- Announcements to come regarding expanding the pub beyond the Beltway to let people know “what’s really” happening in Congress.

- David Hawkings leaves Managing Editor post at CQ Weekly to become editor of new free e-mail newsletter called The CQ-Roll Call Daily Briefing.

- Fred Barbash replaces Hawkings as CQ Weekly’s Managing Editor.

- Steve Gettinger returns to CQ as deputy managing editor of CQ Weekly. He’ll work alongside Barbash.

So far, still no “change agent from the outside” addition as Mills said he wanted at the time of Roll Call Editor Charlie Mitchell‘s resignation. We’ll keep you posted.
Read the internal memo after the jump…

> Clarification: Mills has said he would find an “outside change agent” for the position of Roll Call Editor. This does not apply to CQ publications despite the operation being called CQ-Roll Call. According to Mills, Roll Call, CQ Weekly and CQ Today will remain separate and distinct — they are not merging into CQ-Roll Call.

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CQ-Roll Call has hired Fred Barbash, a senior editor at Politico. Before that, he worked as an editor and writer at WaPo. He joins CQ-Roll Call as deputy managing editor of CQ Weekly.

Barbash starts next month.

Politico’s Executive Editor Jim VandeHei remarked, “Fred is a terrific editor – and a terrific guy. As an editor and professor, he has shown great passion and skill for training reporters so he will be great in his new leadership role at CQ. We wish him all the best.”

Read the internal memo from CQ-Roll Call Executive Editor Susan Benkelman after the jump…

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In an internal memo to Politico staff, Editor John Harris announces, with some degree of gravity, two new hires.

At the top of the memo, he jokes that the announcement, a welcome e-mail regarding two new Politico editors, is “more serious than it sounds” in that without such an announcement, the publication could be “slapped with fines and surcharges” if Politico personnel policies are hit with an audit.

All joking aside, the new hires are Matt Negrin and Jessica Taylor. Negrin,a Boston University grad who edited the student newspaper, will report on Obama’s White House. He has worked in D.C. for the Boston Globe and New Hampshire’s Union Leader, among a host of other resume building jobs.

Taylor, meanwhile, will work on the upcoming unveiled 2010 campaign page. She was research director the 2010 edition of the “Alamanac of American Politics” and was a staff writer and online producer for NationalJournal.com. Like Negrin, Taylor also edited her student newspaper at Furman University in South Carolina.

See Harris’s internal memo after the jump…

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Expect tomorrow an announcement from the Politico about its latest product (thanks to new senior editor Fred Barbash), “The Arena.”

It aims to be an invite-only daily debate among political insiders about one big issue of the day (mainly about the election, then the transition and the new president-Congress). Governors Napalitano, Bredesen, Pawlenty are slated to participate, as are Reps. John Boehner and John Lewis (Also: Carville, Daschle).