Washington Post Names Two Managing Editors

Steve Coll, a former managing editor, said Spayd excelled at handling "big personalities" on the national staff and played a key role in the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "She has a subtle intuition for where people's talents lay," said Coll, now a New Yorker writer. "She's tough-minded but does not insist on being the answer to every question herself. She worked from behind the curtain."

Karen DeYoung, a reporter and a former assistant managing editor for national news, said Spayd could "always make your story better" and could "get reporters who are locked in events to see the larger picture."

Asked about Spayd's reserved style, DeYoung said: "I think she is a little shy, but she is very funny."

Narisetti spent his first 18 years in India before enrolling in Indiana University in 1989 and earning a master's degree in journalism. The Indian American worked with Brauchli as a deputy national editor at the Journal, and again when he supervised the Journal's European editions from Brussels.

Narisetti resigned two weeks ago as founding editor of Mint. His blog on the Indian paper's Web site, A Romantic Realist, dealt with matters including "The Intellectually Bankrupt Indian Left" and "Tech Sex."

"When you're crazy enough to start a newspaper in 2007, you rethink a lot of the approaches to it," he said. "It gives you the luxury of a lot of fresh ideas that an existing newspaper doesn't have."

When it comes to merging the two Post newsrooms, Narisetti said: "I don't have all the answers. My responsibility is to help produce the right strategic answers." He said he is "a little nervous" and, as an outsider, faces "a short but steep learning curve." While teaming up again with Brauchli is a draw, Narisetti said, "it's very hard not to want to work for The Post if given the chance."

Both Spayd and Narisetti said the sharp decline in newspaper revenue and staffing -- The Post completed a third round of voluntary retirements late last year -- is changing the tradition-bound mind-set. "The industry is in such trouble that there is a willpower to try a lot of things that maybe five years ago we wouldn't have considered trying," Narisetti said.