Shuffling the Newsroom

Some newsroom changes coming out of the Washington Post: 1.) "We're delighted to announce that Lonnae O'Neal Parker will move from Style to Metro as a general assignment writer specializing in enterprise and features." 2.) "Sandy Sugawara has agreed to become the newspaper's Immigration Editor, responsible for coordinating coverage across desks and leading our reporting into new territory." Full announcements after the jump... We're delighted to announce that Lonnae O'Neal Parker will move from Style to Metro as a general assignment writer specializing in enterprise and features. With her thoughtful insight, graceful writing and unique voice, Lonnae will help us bring to life the people and places of the evolving Prince George's County. It's a county with which she has deep familiarity, having lived there 12 years. Since joining Style in 1997, Lonnae has written much about popular culture and race. In 2000 she won Columbia University's award for distinguished work in the coverage of ethnicity in America. Her story "White Girl" was made the subject of a special broadcast of ABC's "Nightline" and led to invitations from around the country for her to speak on race. She has brought Post readers compassionate and powerful narratives--the newlywed whose face was destroyed by a rock thrown off an overpass, the Montgomery family that burned to death because they had only one exit in their rental unit, the man freed after spending half his life incarcerated for a murder he didn't commit. She has entertained with her impish humor--competing with a drag queen, spoofing Oprah's Best Life tour, bravely getting made up with Miss USA contestants. After Hurricane Katrina, she launched the well-received micro series documenting the many travails of the Larche family, displaced to Silver Spring, as they struggled to rebuild a new life here from nothing. The series ended when one of the subjects cracked under the strain and grief. Lonnae is proficient in Spanish, an asset in Prince George's. (Langley Park has the highest concentration of Hispanics in the region).She is currently making appearances for her charming new book, "I'm Every Woman: Remixed Stories of Marriage, Motherhood, and Work." We're excited to have Lonnae's fresh voice in the Metro section. She'll start with us in May. Please welcome her. ****************** April 4, 2006 Immigration Editor As immigration's influence deepens in American politics, economics and culture â€“ and changes communities across the Washington region â€“ we've come a long way in describing its causes and effects, and particularly the people carried by its currents. But we need to do more, and discover new ways to do it. To direct us in this effort, Sandy Sugawara has agreed to become the newspaper's Immigration Editor, responsible for coordinating coverage across desks and leading our reporting into new territory. Currently, more than two dozen reporters working largely independently on staffs across the newsroom focus in some way on immigration. Immigrants naturally populate stories everywhere in the paper; the immigration debate shows up in coverage of everything from schools to landscaping, religion to shopping to office politics. Sandy will create a formal role in coordinating this coverage. She will consult directly with the AMEs and assignment editors and report to Len and Phil. Her goals include developing a common agenda for immigration coverage that weeds out overlap and repetition, sees gaps and new opportunities, and promotes the cross-staff collaboration that is essential for documenting the breadth and complexity of this subject. Sandy will also coordinate the newsroom's efforts to expand coverage of immigration on washingtonpost.com, Washington Post Radio and our contributions to El Tiempo Latino. This is an experimental structure for editing in our newsroom. It will challenge us to jump over internal boundaries on a subject of common and sustained importance. Sandy has agreed to take this role while retaining her position as Business Editor, where she and AME Jill Dutt have supervised innovative work on immigration. Over the next weeks, Sandy will be meeting with reporters and editors involved in immigration coverage to hear their ideas and discuss the practical aspects of this promising new role.

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Shuffling the Newsroom

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