Dull DC Journal Seeks Young Thomas Friedmans

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The National Journal, The Atlantic's lackluster DC sibling, is seeking a cadre of college graduates with "extreme talent" in its continued attempt to challenge Politico's domination of DC news.

In a major step toward this goal, current Associated Press Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier also agreed today to become the new editor-in-chief of the National Journal Group.

According to a job description (full PDF below), the Journal is looking for 24 reporters in two categories:

1. Breaking News - Especially web savvy The idea here is to identify reporters made for--naturally wired for--breaking news. High metabolism. Relentless. Unstoppable. Prolific.

2.  Original Insight The intention here, harder to realize, is to identify individuals made  for--naturally wired for--original insight, original frames for comment on the large, national issues. Economist rigor; Tom Friedman insight.

In an e-mail to a college newspaper, David Bradley, chairman of Atlantic Media, which owns the National Journal, wrote earlier this month that the company was looking for "arresting talent," and that it would hire about 30 reporters and editors by the end of the summer.

"I don't think we need restrict our search to graduates still seeking work in journalism," he wrote. "Under the theory that talent knows talent, I'm happy for our staff to talk with anyone who might, in turn, know others to recommend."

For the original insight positions, Bradley wrote that he was trying to find "writers whom you could see, one day, writing columns or leaders for the New York Times or the Economist."

Recruiting top college newspaper talent is a new part of Atlantic Media's strategy to reinvent the National Journal for the web, in the same way that it successfully rebranded The Atlantic, starting in 2007.

The Journal's current political reporting is "Sahara in August dry stuff," as one journalist I know put it.

Media critics slam Politico, the Beltway enfant terrible, for driving a 24-hour-news cycle powered by insider gossip and meaningless scoops. But since it was created in 2007, Politico has increasingly shoved the city's traditional news outlets to the sidelines.

It seems that Bradley's goal may be to make the Journal as fast and relentless as Politico, but smarter--think The Economist on crack.

To do this, Bradley is looking for hires who are genetically predestined -- or, umm, programmed? -- for the positions he's looking to fill.

Not only is the Journal seeking candidates "naturally wired for" breaking news or insightful opinion,  Bradley described Fournier as stepping forward "at an aggressive, competitive hour in journalism -- as if wired by nature for this leadership role."

Bradley's "wired by nature" rhetoric seems to buy into the OCDification of Washington reporting, dramatized most vividly in a New York Times Magazine profile of Politico's star reporter, Mike Allen, a man whose devotion to his job comes across as superhuman.

It's not enough anymore to be talented, hard-working, and experienced -- to succeed in DC these days, a journalist should be another Allen (or, if you're lucky, a cross between Allen and Tom Friedman, circa 1978).

Allen, of course, was the one who broke the story this morning about the National Journal hiring Fournier, as well as co-writing Politico's story on General David Petraeus replacing General Stanley McChrystal.

Young journalists with this kind of "arresting" or "extreme" talent can send their resumes to apply@nationaljournal.com.

At least it's better than applying to be a "Jr. Staff writer."

The full PDF job description is below.

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