I’m a big fan of bylines. So it was energizing to see that the New Yorker and the Washington Post have recently incorporated these marketing tactics into their website templates. In a sentence or two, articles by staffers now give the reader a glimpse of who the author is, thus humanzing the publication.
To be sure, Slate has always bylined each article; Vanity Fair, in its print magazine, runs a blurb about each author; and most publications acknowledge guest contributors. To my knowledge, however, the below two outlets are blazing the bylined way in the mainstream media.
A few examples:
The New Yorker
● Lauren Collins began working at The New Yorker in 2003 and became a staff writer in 2008.
● John McPhee began contributing to The New Yorker in 1963.
● Anthony Lane has been a film critic for The New Yorker since 1993.
● Steve Coll, a staff writer, is the dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, and reports on issues of intelligence and national security in the United States and abroad.
● Roger Angell, a senior editor and a staff writer, has contributed to The New Yorker since 1944, and became a fiction editor in 1956.
The Washington Post
● Karen Tumulty is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post, where she received the 2013 Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting.
● Radley Balko blogs about criminal justice, the drug war and civil liberties for The Washington Post. He is the author of the book Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces.
● Matt Zapotosky covers the federal district courthouse in Alexandria, where he tries to break news from a windowless office in which he is not allowed to bring his cellphone.
● Reid Wilson covers state politics and policy for the Washington Post's GovBeat blog. He's a former editor in chief of The Hotline, the premier tip sheet on campaigns and elections, and he's a complete political junkie.
● Manuel Roig-Franzia is a writer in The Washington Post’s Style section. His long-form articles span a broad range of subjects, including politics, power and the culture of Washington, as well as profiling major political figures and authors.
● Caitlin Dewey runs The Intersect blog, writing about digital and Internet culture. Before joining the Post, she was an associate online editor at Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.
