Did anyone actually end up writhing on the floor? Where did Allen connect? Was there any shoving involved? How quickly did Brauchli get to the scene of the crime?

Hit play and find out!

When one man hauls off and punches another in the face, the conflict often has a long-tailed provenance. Such appears to be the case with Washington Post Style section staffers Manuel Roig-Franzia and Henry Allen. Those two got into a tussle on Friday afternoon in the vicinity of Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli's temporary office on the 4th floor of the Washington Post building at 15th and L Streets NW.

Let's mark the start of hostilities as mid-week. That's when, according to an informed source, Allen raised questions about a Roig-Franzia story about a woman who had undergone multiple abortions. In the back and forth, Roig-Franzia allegedly called Allen a "dick." No punches were thrown.

Read More "Allen v. Roig-Franzia: From the Beginning" »

Around deadline on Friday, some tensions boiled over in the Style section of the Washington Post. According to an informed source, a disagreement arose between reporter Manuel Roig-Franzia and storied Style veteran Henry Allen.

Though it's unclear exactly what they were arguing about, it is clear that the mood was testy. Testy enough, that is, for Roig-Franzia to quip to Allen, "Henry, don't be such a cocksucker."

Allen didn't take kindly to the suggestion and went after Roig-Franzia, in the testimony of an eyewitness. Limited combat then broke out, though, again, it's not terribly clear how many punches landed.

The mayhem broke out not far from the temporary office of Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli. A lean man, Brauchli reportedly was among the first Post males on the scene to perform the time-honored "break it up" duties. A few others helped out, too.

We have calls out to both principals and will keep prosecuting the story as the day progresses.

Update 11:28 am: Attempts to get Brauchli on the line regarding his alpha-male heroics have proven futile thus far. The executive editor is apparently on travel today. However, WaPo spokesperson Kris Coratti issued this statement in response to questions about the matter: "I can't discuss private personnel matters but that doesn't mean we haven't taken this incident seriously and addressed it appropriately."

Just what "appropriately" means here isn't quite clear yet. Before taking on that question, we're looking to speak with Allen and Roig-Franzia, not to mention other individuals.

Update 12:25 pm: Reached Roig-Franzia on his cell phone. After I identified myself, his phone hung up.

UPDATE: Be sure to check out City Paper's exclusive reenactment of this historic event: Allen v. Roig-Franzia ~ The Movie!

Howard Kurtz this morning tells the tale of some high-stakes negotiations between Washington Post brass and the Pentagon over the paper's fresh scoop on the war in Afghanistan. The story, by legendary Postie Bob Woodward, conveyed the dire assessment of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan: Without troop reinforcements, the campaign in Afghanistan will fail within a year.

Read More "Brauchli Doctrine Strikes Again?" »

A seasoned consumer of news had every reason to furrow a brow at the XX Files column in last week's Washington Post Magazine. The first-person essay touts the author's one-woman campaign against kiddie thieves in a local pharmacy.

Here's a sampling: "As the child scurries past me with his pilfered beverage, I reach out for the hood of his coat. I pull him in and press my hand on his back. 'Put it back,' I say. Though he's the one in trouble, my own heart races. A whimper seeps from his mouth; a gurgle of stuttered syllables follows. 'I'm s-s-orry. I'm s-sorry,' he repeats."

It's a powerful, well-told episode, but how do we know it ever happened?

Read More "Why Did the Washington Post Magazine Run Another Wanda Fleming Column?" »

Matthew Mendelsohn isn't upset with Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth, even though she may well have scuppered his 10,000-word piece on a quadruple amputee. She's still a good friend, he says. "I don't want Katharine to be exposed to this story."

His feelings about Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli aren't nearly as charitable. "Marcus should quit while he's ahead," says Mendelsohn.

Read More "Freelancer to Brauchli: Quit While You’re Ahead" »

Yesterday, I interviewed Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli for a story I was writing on the Washington Post Magazine. I was working on allegations that Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth may have played a part in killing a magazine story written by a freelancer who happened to be a friend of hers.

Read More "Brauchli: Washington Post Swamped with Media Calls" »

From this point forward, the Washington Post newsroom pledges to start buzzing long before, like, noon each day. More reporters and editors, says Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli, will start coming in earlier.

The reason for the switch? Check out the memo after the jump.

Read More "WaPo Adjusts Working Hours" »

Washington Post reporter Paul Duggan spent four months reporting and writing a two-part series on a juicy local murder case. The results were published on Monday and Tuesday, to great public acclaim. Yet faithful subscribers who scoop up their paper on the front steps each day found none of it in their pages---only a few teasers sending them to washingtonpost.com.

Is this a bold experiment by a savvy media institution to herd its readership across platforms? Depends on whom you ask.

Read More "Washington Post’s Robert Wone Story: Web Experiment?" »

A couple of weeks ago, Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli sent out a 1,700-word memo---"Memo No. 1"---that launched the re-organization of the paper's newsroom. As management memos go, it was a beaut---precise and elegant in its language and determined in its tone, all with the goal of creating a structure that would better position the paper to compete. An inspiring piece of media statecraft.

Now comes Memo No. 2 (included after the jump in its entirety), which doesn't quite meet the standards of its predecessor. OK, it's a turd.

Read More "Washington Post Follow-Up Re-Org Memo: Say What?" »

If you see any typos in today's Washington Post, there's a good reason. Very little work went down at the 15th and L HQ yesterday, what with all the chatter about the reorganization plan handed down by the paper's top editors.

Much of the gossip continues to center on the plans of acclaimed Metro columnist Marc Fisher. As reported yesterday, current Assistant Managing Editor for Metro Robert McCartney is sliding into a columnist position, and they'll be hiring yet another one soon. Fisher appears likely to move into another job with the organization, likely as an editor. It's not clear what that position is.

Yet there are many other points of discussion. Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli released the re-org memo to Posties early in the work day and then convened a Town Hall meeting in the afternoon.

Reviews of that session weren't terribly positive. Staffers apparently pelted upper management with questions about exactly how this elaborate new organization would work. The memo, you see, talks about how the paper is creating a "universal desk," to be headed by current top biz editor Sandy Sugawara, that'll shovel all kinds of content from the newsroom onto platforms.

Read More "More Thoughts on the New, Re-Org’d WaPo" »

As discussed in an amazing earlier post, the Washington Post blew up its newsroom today. Via the most masterfully written, almost inspiring, re-org memo, Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli changed forever the way that Posties take stories, blog items, and Tweets, and channel them to the paper's various platforms. The memo is not only chockablock with new ways of working, but also promulgates a number of key personnel changes, including the move of sports editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz to the chief of local news.

However, the most pivotal figure in this whole deal isn't even mentioned in the memo. He's Metro columnist Marc Fisher. Several sources in the newsroom are whispering that something big is up with Fisher.

Read More "Is Fisher Bagging His Column?" »

Marcus Brauchli has been executive editor of the Washington Post for nearly eight months. A lot of that time he's spent burrowing into coverage of the global economic meltdown, having meetings with key individuals, and banging away at his BlackBerry. Changes, as is customary at the Post, have come slowly and cautiously, such as the decision to curb duplication in obituary writing on the Metro and Style pages.

This morning, however, Brauchli dumped the Mr. Incremental persona in favor of Change Agent, handing down an enormous, nearly 1,700-word memo blowing up the newsroom. No more Balkanized Washington Post, with nine million fiefdoms, all with their own top bosses who tussle and muscle each other over every little thing.

In the new Post world, there'll be three top editors: Kevin Merida, in charge of national stuff; Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, the current sports editor who'll take over local coverage; and Sandy Sugawara, the current business editor who's going to be in charge of a "universal" news desk that'll funnel all kinds of content into print, the Web, and so on.

The rest of the changes kinda flow from that new structure, with massive personnel upheaval, and desks and titles moving around the place like gchats. But one newsroom change towers above all the others for Posties as well as readers.

The memo announces that Assistant Managing Editor for Metro Robert McCartney will leave his current perch to take a job as a Metro columnist. He's run excellent Metro coverage since mid-2005, when he was chosen to succeed Jo-Ann Armao. His people love him, he's had good relations with the Web folks, and he did fabulous things for the long-suffering feature hole in Metro's front page.

So the move to providing content is nothing short of a shocker. In mid-December, McCartney sent out a notice announcing that his desk would be hiring a new columnist. The memo called the move "exciting news," doubtless a reference to the extraordinary act of hiring in these tough media times. Here's what the job announcement said, in part: "We want a columnist who becomes a must-read feature in the paper and on the Web. We want a columnist who can offer a compelling and provocative read twice a week, who is an exceptional reporter, voiced writer and deep thinker. We want a columnist who has a lot to say and really looks forward to saying it."

Who knows---perhaps the boss fashioned a job description so delicious that he just had to have it himself. The Dick Cheney of the Washington Post? Or is McCartney's position separate from the one that the paper declared open in December?

Either way, management seems happy with the move, if the re-org memo is to be believed:

Bob McCartney, who has served the paper so well as AME/Metro for the last four years, will become a Metropolitan columnist, one of our leading voices in the community where Bob grew up and has lived and run coverage for so long. His distinguished career as a foreign correspondent, managing editor of the International Herald Tribune and the first AME of the continuous news desk, and as a business editor and a reporter gives him the kind of depth and wisdom that will infuse his writing with authority and insight.

Unsaid is how long it's been since McCartney scored regular bylines---that would be about 18 years, judging from a quick Nexis search. Correction 4/17: This part is wrong: McCartney picked up regular bylines in 2003, as a correspondent from Paris. I apologize for the mistake. So McCartney can management employees, but can he manage sources again? I'd say yes---he'll get the magic back.

The bigger consideration---and it's a huge one---relates to the lineup of Metro columnists. Here they are: McCartney, Marc Fisher, John Kelly, and Courtland Milloy. The relevant percentages: 75 percent white, 100 percent male.

Now, there is no way this can stand at the Washington Post. Just no way. Not at a paper that over the years has taken great pains to ensure diversity within its reportorial corps. The boys club on the Metro page this morning emerged as one of the top items of gossip in the Post newsroom.

Answers on Metro columnist diversity, though, are tough to come by right now. Sources at the Post appear to be digesting the news and not picking up the phone.

One editor in a position to know, however, says there's "more to come on columnists." The editor did say that McCartney is not moving into the columnist slot announced in December.

This afternoon, there's a "town hall" meeting on the changes at the Post. Turn off that BlackBerry, Brauchli!

Memo after jump.

Read More "WaPo Re-Org: Holy Shit!" »

If you're an editor at the Washington Post, don't get too comfy at your desk. Because your bosses may be getting ready to move you.

A wide-ranging editorial reorganization is afoot at the paper, and staffers are busy exchanging whatever details they can pick up. But they're hard to come by. Several top editors confirmed that the plan is coming soon but get touchy when pushed on details.

"I think people in the newsroom are going to be quite happy with the choices of the people who are going to be leading the paper," says Peter Perl, a top newsroom official. "That’s really as far as I can go."

All week long, sources in the newsroom have speculated that an announcement on the editorial reconfiguration could come as soon as today. But Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli and others apparently have too many fine points to nail down before making anything official. Brauchli passed an inquiry about the changes to spokesperson Kris Coratti, who wrote via e-mail, "We don’t comment on rumors."

Read More "Endangered Species at WaPo: Editors" »

Date:
Friday, March 13, 2009 03:30PM
Subject:
A Message from Marcus, Liz, Raju and Sandy
Beginning March 30, we will make several changes in The Post’s presentation of business news and some Style-section features.

Our business coverage will shift into the main news package in the A Section Monday through Saturday. We will have a new business and economics display page inside the section, designed to signal to readers the centrality of economic news, as well as the increasing overlap of political and economic events, in today’s world. The expanded A Section will allow us to make better decisions about story play and length, and to run a leaner, better-organized newspaper.

Read More "Post Biz-Section Changes: The Memo" »