David Eldridge Leaves <em>TWT</em> for <em>Roll Call</em>

In a letter to staff, Roll Call editor-in-chief Christina Bellantoni announced yesterday the hiring of David Eldridge away from The Washington Times, where he had been assistant editor on the politics desk.* She also announced several promotions and newsroom re-organizations. Eldridge, who starts his new gig on March 31st, will now serve as Roll Call's House editor. He will work with Emma Dumain, Dan Newhouser, and Matt Fuller on the "218" blog, and be their main point of contact for short and long-term projects. He comes to Roll Call amidst a transition for the paper. Bellantoni herself started a mere 8 weeks ago, and a major re-org had already happened right before she arrived. That blueprint was augmented somewhat by the sudden departure of Peter Anthony last week, and now, with a flurry of promotions and the hiring of Eldridge, Bellantoni is attempting to right the ship. Eldridge is leaving an arguably more troubled paper, also in the midst of major renovation. TWT Editor John Solomon has been trying to reinvent his conservative daily as a multimedia investigative enterprise since he was brought on last summer. There were more adjustments and promotions announced yesterday as well, though they are a bit too numerous for us to regurgitate here. For more detail on the latest Roll Call re-org, check out Bellantoni's letter to staff, after the jump. *Update 2:49: This post previously said that David Eldridge was most recently the managing editor of TWT's website. That was inaccurate. Though he was once the managing editor of the website, he is now assistant editor on the politics desk. The current managing editor of the site is Ian Bishop. Hello everyone, I am really excited to announce some newsroom changes. I've loved every moment of the 8 weeks I have been back at Roll Call, and feel like the leadership team we've put in place this election year is exactly right for helping us continue to do the terrific work we're known for and grow our audience. My goals are to produce journalism that captures both our Capitol Hill community and national attention, engage readers with stories, social media outreach and new multimedia experiments, foster a fun place to work where everyone feels supported, and, as we discussed in our last staff meeting, remind people that Roll Call is cool. I've thought a lot about what our team needs to do this while helping everyone have a good work-life balance, and have come up with a blueprint I think is going to work well for our very bright future as the newspaper of Capitol Hill. David Eldridge is joining our team as the House Editor. He'll get started March 31. I have known David for 10 years and am pleased he'll be on our team as we focus more and more on our digital strategy. He joins us from The Washington Times, where he has been handling political news for their robust web operation. He is a seasoned journalist who blogs, edits and assigns stories. In short, he can do it all. His roots are in Texas, and he ran newspaper newsrooms there and in Nebraska before moving to Washington. He knows just about everything there is to know about comic book superheroes, and plenty about music. And no doubt he and Abby will be able to swap UT stories. David will work closely with Emma, Dan and Matt to make 218 the destination for news about the House and be their main point of contact for short- and long-term projects. Among the things that have always impressed me about David are his ability to understand a news outlet's role in the marketplace and his knack for generating enterprise story ideas. His talents are going to be a great fit for our nimble operation. He is likely to contribute stories to our community coverage as well. Having David on board will free up Steve Dennis to continue working with Humberto and Niels to make WGDB the destination for news about the Senate, and give him more time to write stories about the intersection between the White House and Congress. Jason Dick is expanding his role in the newsroom as Capitol Hill Editor. He'll keep up the awesome work he is doing with Roll Call's community coverage, and continue working with Hannah, Bridget and Warren. Rebecca Gale is adding to her role as well, continuing her vital Hill Navigator coverage, running special policy briefings and managing our opinion section. She will add to that coverage with more news about Hill staffers, with an eye toward new special projects and series reporting. In addition to picking up more story editing for the paper, she is going to help our reporters identify their strongest work for awards submissions. Rebecca also will serve as editorial's liaison to marketing by working with our incoming Public Relations and Events ManagerShana Westlake to help Roll Call's journalists showcase their best work on television and radio. (More on Shana to come from Beth Bronder in the next few weeks.) We're also getting ready to launch new blogs, and there are others in the works. * Capitol Lens will allow Bill and Tom to showcase their work in new ways, and will feature a regular podcast-style video with the guys that gets at the story behind the image. It's also a place where other multimedia projects spearheaded by Meredith and John can live. * Hill Blotter will give Hannah Hess freedom to post all day and expand her already terrific reporting on the Capitol Hill community. * Steve will be starting a White House blog. Open to suggestions for a name! But wait, there's more! As you know, we're hiring. Shira and I are close to finding a new politics reporter. If you have anyone you think we should consider during these final stages, please have them apply here and send them our way. https://www1.apply2jobs.com/CQRollCall/ProfExt/index.cfm?fuseaction=mExternal.showJob&RID=241&CurrentPage=2 We'll also be bringing on another copy editor who will be in the office full time. That ad isn't posted yet but I'll send around the link once it is. And this summer, we are lucky to be adding another Director's Intern from Harvard's Institute of Politics to our ranks. Colin Diersing will join us after finishing his sophomore year at Harvard, where he is studying the intersection of electoral politics, education policy and public opinion research. He is originally from Bloomington, Ind. Colin has served as the interviews editor for the Harvard Political Review. Shira has been able to get to know Colin this semester as he often attends her IOP study group, and he impressed us with his story pitches and writing test during a highly competitive process in Cambridge. I want to thank everyone for your patience and work that has made me very proud to be back at Roll Call. I remain confident it's going to be a great year. Cheers, Christina

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David Eldridge Leaves TWT for Roll Call

Patrick Tutwiler

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