WaPo Names New Managing Editors

From an internal Washington Post staff notice, obtained by FishbowlDC:

To the Staff:

I am pleased to announce the appointment, effective today, of Liz Spayd and Raju Narisetti as Managing Editors of The Washington Post.

In a time of upheaval in our industry and economy, Liz and Raju are
newsroom leaders with deep journalistic experience and vision. Each brings a thorough understanding of the imperatives we face and the possibilities for success and growth that lie ahead.

For the last two years, Liz has been Editor of washingtonpost.com, our
highly successful online operation. Working closely with Jim Brady, Liz has guided our online news team during an expansion that saw traffic to the site grow by more than a third last year alone. Before that, as Assistant Managing Editor for National News, she led a central pillar of our downtown newsroom.

Raju is a former deputy managing editor of The Wall Street Journal who
returned to India a few years ago to create a new-model national business newspaper and website, called Mint. It is among the country’s most respected publications, produced as a newspaper in three cities daily and with a large and influential online following. He also helped to revamp the Journal’s overseas editions and create its global news desk.

Together, Liz and Raju have talents and knowledge that will strengthen our newsroom at a critical juncture. Journalistically they are a powerful duo, with backgrounds in national, international and business news. Our national staff won four Pulitzer Prizes under Liz, while the Journal’s European and Middle East staff under Raju won prizes from the Overseas Press Club, the German Marshall Fund and the World Leadership Forum.

As we move forward with the integration of our print and online teams,
we’ll need to rethink the way we organize ourselves, to ensure we deliver the strongest, smartest journalism we can to the broadest possible audience. Liz’s background here means she knows how we’ve done things and what’s vital to preserve; Raju’s experience pioneering new technologies and design should enable us to leapfrog ahead in those areas.

They will jointly lead the combined newsroom and work closely together with other senior editors on the large task of integrating and modernizing our news operations. Liz will oversee our main news operations, including the metro, sports, national, foreign, financial, investigative and news desks, and will run the print newspaper’s day-to-day production. Raju will oversee the features groups, including Style, the magazine, Weekend and the weekly sections, as well as the visual departments, photography, graphics and video. He will be responsible for day-to-day online operations and will guide product innovation and work with Liz and me on newsroom strategy
questions. Until the newsrooms are both in the same office, Raju will spend a good portion of his time in Arlington getting to know the Web staff and their operations.

In a difficult era, when the challenges we face loom larger by the day,
it’s never been more vital that we remember our mission of serving,
engaging and entertaining our audience with powerful, original and useful journalism. With Liz and Raju in their new positions, I plan to dedicate more time to ensuring we are delivering on that mission. The three of us will plan to meet with the staffs downtown and in Arlington over the next few days.

Please join me in congratulating Liz and Raju on their new roles and in
welcoming Raju to The Washington Post.

Marcus

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