Times-Picayune editor honored

Jim Amoss, editor of The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, is Editor & Publisher's 2006 Editor of the Year.

In an unprecedented 10-page profile for the February 2006 issue, E&P's Mark Fitzgerald reveals that Amoss is being honored for directing his newsroom in its remarkable coverage "before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina hit" the editor's hometown of New Orleans last August.

The story recalls the newspaper's extensive past reporting on the city's vulnerability, especially the "Washing Away" series by reporters John McQuaid and Mark Schleifstein that predicted with eerie accuracy the horrific consequences of poor emergency preparedness planning by local, state, and federal governments. It also notes that the Times-Picayune reported on levee failures right after Katrina struck -- at a time all other news organizations were saying New Orleans had "dodged a bullet."

Times-Picayune journalists accomplished all this, E&P notes, despite being forced to evacuate their newsroom and produce a paper on the fly with help from two other Louisiana dailies, The Courier in Houma and The Advocate in Baton Rouge.