Newsweek Names Jon Meacham as New Top Editor
Wednesday, September 6, 2006; Page C10
Jon Meacham, who began racing up the corporate ladder almost as soon as he joined Newsweek, was named the magazine's editor yesterday after nearly eight years in its No. 2 spot.
A Tennessee native who joined Newsweek 11 years ago, Meacham, 37, is a best-selling author who has specialized in writing about religion and history. Meacham, who takes over Oct. 2, is bullish on the role of the newsweeklies.
  After 11 years at Newsweek, Jon Meacham, 37, becomes the magazine's youngest editor since 1961. (Newsweek) |
"The idea that you can be either entirely analysis or entirely scoop-driven is a false choice," he said in an interview from New York. "We have to earn people's attention. Reporting is at the heart of the enterprise. We have to break news like a Web site, tell it like a monthly and do it every week."
In the latest in a series of orderly successions in which Newsweek deputies have been promoted, Meacham succeeds Mark Whitaker, who will become vice president and chief of new ventures for the digital division of Newsweek's parent firm, The Washington Post Co.
Dan Klaidman, a former Newsweek bureau chief in Washington and Jerusalem who recently became an assistant managing editor, will replace Meacham in the managing editor's job.
Time, which has long led Newsweek in the circulation wars, recently tapped a new top editor in Richard Stengel, who is switching Time's publication date to Friday from the traditional Monday. Meacham said big news can break on either cycle and that he sees no great advantage to hitting newsstands before the weekend.
As the father of children aged 4 and 2, Meacham said he is especially interested in education and pediatric health care, but also plans to emphasize religion and spirituality. "Extremism in the name of God is the defining story of our time," he said.
Meacham is the author of "American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation," as well as "Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship."
When Meacham was an elementary school student in Chattanooga, Tuesday was a big day in his house because Newsweek, Time and the New Yorker arrived, he said. He was an editor at the Washington Monthly before joining Newsweek, where he became national editor at 26. Meacham is the youngest Newsweek editor since Osborn Elliott, who was six months younger when appointed in 1961.
Dismissing critics who see the weekly magazines as losing relevance in a 24-hour news world, Meacham said: "Our cover is our power. I think that still matters in this country."
Curley Joins The Post's Digital Division
The Washington Post Co.'s digital division announced yesterday that it had hired Rob Curley to the new job of vice president of product development. Curley, 35, began directing online operations at the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World in 2002 and joined the E.W. Scripps Co. last year to run the Web site of the Naples Daily News in Florida. In both positions, he focused on localizing online coverage and finding ways to generate revenue through new media.
The division oversees washingtonpost.com, Newsweek.com, Slate and BudgetTravelOnline.com.
