The Washington Post named Alison Coglianese its new reader representative this morning, according to a Washington Post memo sent to iMediaEthics.
Coglianese has been with the Post since May 2011, and has previously been the ombudsman’s assistant and deputy reader representative.
“In her new role Alison will help make sure that reader questions and complaints are directed to the right place and responded to appropriately. She will also answer questions from time to time on the Ask the Post blog,” the memo states.
Doug Feaver was the previous — and first –reader representative. In January, Media Matters reported that Feaver had left the Post for “personal reasons.”
The role of reader representative was created in 2013 to replace the ombudsman position. The ombudsman position was independent from the Post and wrote print columns about complaints and issues. The reader representative position is Post staffer. As the Post described the job last year:
“Unlike ombudsmen in the past, the reader representative will be a Post employee. The representative will not write a weekly column for the page, but will write online and/or in the newspaper from time to time to address reader concerns, with responses from editors, reporters or business executives as appropriate.”
This morning’s full memo, sent to iMediaEthics by the Washington Post, is below:
“We’re delighted to announce that Alison Coglianese will become the Post’s Reader Representative, succeeding Doug Feaver. Alison came to the Post in May 2011 as the ombudsman’s assistant and become deputy reader representative when Doug took over. In her new role Alison will help make sure that reader questions and complaints are directed to the right place and responded to appropriately. She will also answer questions from time to time on the Ask the Post blog.
“Alison graduated from DeSales University in 2008 with degrees in political science and communication. She worked at The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., on the Opinion pages, handling letters to the editor and laying out editorial pages. She lives in Alexandria, Va.
“Marty Fred”
UPDATE: 2/20/2014: 10:50 AM EST: Added more information about the ombudsman and reader representative positions