The <em>Longest</em> Internal Memo in Modern History

WaPo is pleased to announced the following changes in local staff. So get your pillow and maybe a grilled cheese sandwich and settle in...this is going to be a long one. Of all the publications in town, this one has the longest, most complex verbiage for newsroom operations. We've included this pooch (above) apropos of nothing and because it has a long tongue to depict the longest ass memo you might read today. To shorten the gargantuan read, we've summed it up: 1. Michael Semel, the criminal justice editor, will be the dep. local editor for news and investigations. He'll be directing a new investigative team. He'll oversee at least a couple of pods. 2. Monica Norton, Local's news editor, will be deputy local editor for planning and enterprise. She'll be allowed to form coverage teams across six reporting pods (whatever that means). We assume this doesn't involve jumping. 3. Jane Elizabeth, Local’s senior digital editor will now be deputy local editor for digital. She's going to be a social media powerhouse. 4. Eli Reyes, editor of the politics & government pod, has been "officially" promoted to politics & government editor since taking over the job last year from Steve Ginsburg. 5. Henri Cauvin, a former foreign correspondent becomes an editor and and will assist Eli in editing the politics & government pod. 6. David Marino-Nachison, Local’s innovations editor, will be co-editor of the courts and police pod. He's considered to be one of the most creative editors at WaPo and will oversee 15 reporters covering D.C. and six suburban counties in Maryland and Virginia. 7. Maria Glod, a law enforcement reporter will work with David (above) as co-editor of the police & courts pod. See the memo... We’re pleased to announce the following changes on the Local staff, effective immediately: Mike Semel, who is currently Local’s criminal justice editor and ran The Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, has been promoted to deputy local editor for news and investigations. In his new role, Mike will oversee both the criminal justice and the politics & government pods. He will work closely with Eli Reyes, politics & government editor, and the editors of the criminal justice pod, to help drive and formulate our news and enterprise report. Mike will also direct a newly created investigative team consisting of Joe Stephens, Mary Pat Flaherty, Josh White and Spencer Hsu. Mike joined The Post in 2000 from The Bergen Record, where he was assistant managing editor. Mike previously served at The Post’s Virginia editor. He is a graduate of Pomona College with a degree in philosophy. Monica Norton, who as Local’s news editor has been most responsible for efficient staff operations and breaking news dominance, has been promoted to deputy local editor for planning and enterprise. This new role has been devised to take advantage of Monica’s leadership skills to ensure that Local’s daily and Sunday reports feature a mix of news, features and analysis from Virginia, Maryland and the District. Working with Local editors, Monica will have authority to create coverage teams across the staff’s six reporting pods, as stories require. She will also continue to edit a cadre of writers consisting of Michael Ruane, Hamil Harris, Courtland Milloy and Susan Kinzie. Monica graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in journalism. She joined The Post in 2005 as an assistant Maryland editor, then edited a technology team on Financial before becoming Local’s news editor in 2009. She previously worked as an editor at Newsday and Gannett Suburban Newspapers, and as a reporter at the Baltimore Sun. Jane Elizabeth, who joined The Post in early 2010 and is Local’s senior digital editor, has been promoted to deputy local editor for digital. She will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of postlocal.com and local content on mobile, tablets and other offerings. In her new role, she will be working with reporters and editors on the local staff to create innovative digital content, dominate breaking news and build audience through social media. Jane came to The Post from The Virginian-Pilot, where she was director of online news. She has also worked as a senior editor at The Virginian-Pilot, local news editor at The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and assistant city editor at both The Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Richmond News Leader. Jane has a bachelor’s in journalism from Radford University and a master’s in mass communications from Virginia Commonwealth. Eli Reyes, who has ably managed and edited the politics & government pod since Steve Ginsberg’s departure last year to the National Staff, has been officially promoted to politics & government editor. Eli will continue to direct Local’s political and government coverage of two state capitals, the nation’s capital, the region’s Congressional delegation and six suburban counties. Eli joined The Post in 2009 after 12 years at Newsday on Long Island, where he held a variety of editing positions, including his final two years as business editor. He is a graduate of City College of New York with a degree in journalism. Henri Cauvin, a former foreign correspondent who last year reported on the earthquake in Haiti and live-blogged the Ingmar Guandique trial in the District, will become an editor and assist Eli in editing the politics & government pod. Henri joined The Post in 2003 and has focused on covering courts and, most recently, social services. He previously worked as a correspondent for The New York Times in Johannesburg. Prior to his overseas tour, Henri worked as a reporter for both the New York Daily News and The Miami Herald. He received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in the study of law from Georgetown University Law Center. David Marino-Nachison, Local’s innovations editor who had been assisting Mike Semel as an editor on the police & courts pod, will retain some of his innovation duties and become co-editor of the pod, which has 15 reporters covering the District and six suburban counties in Maryland and Virginia. One of the staff’s most creative editors, David will continue to oversee Jason Samenow and the Capital Weather Gang and assist in curating offerings for Page 2 of the Metro Section. David joined The Post in 2005 and previously worked at the Manassas Journal Messenger. He graduated from Miami University in Ohio with a bachelor’s in English. Maria Glod, a law enforcement reporter with deep expertise who most recently has powerfully chronicled the story of a Virginia man imprisoned falsely for rape for 27 years, will also join the editing ranks and work with David as co-editor of the police & courts pod. Maria joined The Post in 1997 from the Montgomery Journal. In addition to law enforcement, she has also reported on local and national education. She graduated from Bucknell University with a degree in classics and psychology. Please join us in congratulating Mike, Monica, Jane, Eli, Henri, David and Maria on their new assignments. Vernon Marcus Liz

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The Longest Internal Memo in Modern History

Betsy Rothstein

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