John McCalla; Led Washington Business Journal

John McCalla, 38, who since September had been top editor of the Washington Business Journal, was found dead Jan. 8 at his home in Washington. A spokeswoman for the D.C. medical examiner said determination of the cause of death was pending further tests.

Before his recent appointment, Mr. McCalla spent about five years as managing editor of the weekly paper. He pushed for a more conversational writing style and was a key figure in restyling the publication to include a cover story as well as other visual and editorial elements.

Among his awards was a first-place citation for commentary from the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association for a 2003 story called "D.C. Fat Bill Goes Against Gut Instinct."

His piece criticized D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson for advocating a bill that would require chain restaurants to list nutritional information alongside all menu items.

After noting the irony of such a waist-conscious bill sponsored by an "at large" council member, Mr. McCalla described the bill as insulting to patrons who "Mendelson thinks are too dumb to know that super-size happy meals mean more calories, fat, sodium and evil carbs."

He asked why only chain restaurants were targets before concluding that Mendelson's proposal would burden residents "with big, fat wastes of legislative energy."

John Francis McCalla was born in Philadelphia and raised in Delaware County, Pa. He was a 1991 journalism graduate of Temple University. He worked in Philadelphia for a trade journal and was a freelance writer and a waiter in New York before joining the Philadelphia Business Journal in 1998 as a tourism and hospitality reporter.

Around Thanksgiving, he completed an AIDS fundraising marathon in Florence.

Survivors include his mother, Mary Fromal of Folcroft, Pa.; a half sister; and a half brother.