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Colling the Herd

Instead of making a conventional pick for managing editor from among a handful of the newspaper's senior editors, the Washington Post gets adventuresome, announcing that Steve Coll , editor and publisher of the Washington Post Mag-azine , will slide into the paper's number two spot on June 29. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Coll, 39, will take over the managing editor's position from Robert G. Kaiser , 54, who will step down after seven years in the job to report and write as an associate editor and senior correspondent. "I was surprised because this job, at our paper and virtually every other paper of its kind, is traditionally filled out of the daily news sections," says Coll. "I was aware, like everybody else, that this was not a stop I had made in my career. I think it'd surely be helpful. But I hope to discover it's not necessary. I've covered an awful lot of news in my career." Coll joined the Post in 1985 as a Style section writer. He later served as a New York-based business writer, a New Delhi-based correspondent and a London-based investigative reporter. "As a reporter, Steve was known for his relentless digging, adventurous travel, easy collaboration with colleagues, incisive analysis and rich writing," Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. told staffers. "As an editor he has achieved significant innovations in the Sunday magazine and has been sought out by many of the newsroom's best writers for advice and editing." Among Coll's top priorities, beyond picking up day-to-day flow issues over the next several months, is spending time with his new underlings. "I want to meet the dozens and dozens of people whose work I know, whose faces I know," he says. "I want to spend time talking with them and listening to a whole new universe of colleagues." In the long term, Coll says he wants to do "journalism that matters" ? "that which creates an honest and truthful record of the times we live in."

Shoes Dropping

The Virgin Islands Daily News ' management team is shifting under the 16,000-circulation daily's new owner, local media magnate Jeffrey Prosser . The majority shareholder in the local phone company, the owner of a local cable television system and an ally of Gov. Roy L. Schneider , Prosser finalized his purchase from Gannett in January (see Free Press, November 1997). Since the sale, which prompted shudders among some readers and staffers who feared the hard-charging paper would become a less independent voice, CEO Ronald Dillman has retired and now is a consultant for the paper, and Penny Feuerzeig , whose fiery leadership led the paper to a Pulitzer in 1995, has been removed as executive editor and is now editorial page editor. Mike Middlesworth , a veteran of the Honolulu Advertiser and a consultant for the Cole Group, has come out of retirement to become CEO and executive editor. He says Feuerzeig's new role was Prosser's decision. "He wanted to change the management of the newsroom," he says. Middlesworth says the paper is increasing its staff a bit as it takes on an innovative project. "We're going to try and develop a multimedia newsgathering and dissemination organization that involves the newspaper, the Internet and the cable TV operation," he says. "Because the Virgin Islands is an isolated market, it's a good place to try some new things."

Very Candid Camera?

Until a police investigation is complete, John Lee , general manager of Florida's 3,000-circulation Apala-chicola Times , has little to say about the hidden camera the Franklin County Sheriff's Department seized ? much to staffers' chagrin ? from the newsroom bathroom on March 2. But he offered readers an explanation: "We had the security cameras because the old building on Water Street had been repeatedly burglarized," he was quoted as saying in the Times. "It seems to me that the allegation is that I have been taping employees. There is not one iota of truth to this insinuation. No surveillance was ever done on employees and the tapes will make that clear." USA Today reports that three female employees resigned after the camera was found, but Lee demurs, acknowledging just one departure. And would he know if any staffers had left the paper? "Absolutely." Declining further comment, he explains, "We are on deadline." After receiving an anonymous tip, Sheriff Bruce Varnes sent an investigator to the weekly to "observe" the bathroom, where he found a pinhole camera, generally used for surveillance, set up with a clear view of any activity in the room. Police, who later interviewed former staffers, found a monitor and VCR in Lee's office and seized 29 tapes, Varnes says. No charges have been filed. "I have never seen hidden cameras in bathrooms in 23 years of law enforcement," Varnes says, "although I imagine a lot of people are checking their bathrooms now." Do newsrooms need such extensive security systems? "I don't feel like there's a need for a camera in the bathroom," Varnes says. "The bathroom should be a private place."

Webly Kudos

Though AJR doesn't make a practice of listing awards, one recent lauding seems worth noting. CNET's NEWS.COM was named best Web site at the annual Webby Awards, which honor creative, innovative and valuable sites. NEWS.COM Editor Jai Singh says the award is extra special because it's from Netly peers. "This is a wonderful tribute to a talented team," he says. Especially because the site beat out NYTimes.com, ABCNews.com , MSNBC and Wired News .

Young Guns

The Washington Post snags yet another twentysomething from the all- Hill, all the time Roll Call newspaper. Juliet Eilperin , 27, will cover the House. "I was born and bred in Washington, so I'm excited about writing for the paper I grew up reading," says Eilperin. Did she expect to get to the big leagues so soon? Of course not, she says, but she's raring to go. "Obviously they're trying to develop younger writers," she says. "I'm eager to bring a level of energy and enthusiasm that a younger reporter has." In December Susan Glasser , 29, left her Roll Call editorship to become the Post's deputy national editor for projects and investigations. And in January Stephanie Mencimer , 28, joined the Post's investigative team from the Washington City Paper . She says the Post's environment is a tad different from what she was used to in the younger, hipper atmosphere of the alternative weekly: "It's like working for the federal government with all the bureaucracy." Mencimer adds, "None of my officemates have nose rings."

Debra D. Durocher